Posts Tagged ‘Eric Weiner’
A Simple ‘OK’ Will Do
Sunday, January 10th, 2010
A friend of mine wrote her words/theme for 2010 – “OK”. For her this represented exactly the essence she wanted for this year. As she said, “There is a ton of love and freedom in those 2 letters. Everything else flows from this spring….”
Imagine flowing from the spring of the letters “OK.” The more the word is repeated, the more I realized, that yes indeed, we are flowing from OK (or into an expansive “okay.”) Where we are in this very moment is okay. We don’t always need the big firecrackers to get going. In our “okay-ness”, life is unfolding, dreams are getting fulfilled, creative juices are flowing, and changes are happening. We can start our day from okay and move from there.
In his book, The Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner travels to ten countries around the world seeking the happiest places. He wants to find out what we can learn from various places and cultures, and what makes other people happy. While sitting in the airport after his experience in Bhutan, he writes the following words into his notebook:
All the moments in my life, everyone I have met, every trip I have taken, every success I have enjoyed, every blunder I have made, every loss I have endured has been just right. I’m not saying they were all good or that they happened for a reason–I don’t buy that brand of pap fatalism–but they have been right. They have been…okay. As far as revelations go, it’s pretty lame, I know. Okay is not bliss, or even happiness. Okay is not the basis for a new religion or self-help movement. Okay won’t get me on Oprah. But okay is a start, and for that I am grateful.
Being ‘okay’ lets us know that we can find our starting point and flow back and forth. What is your starting point? What is the spring from which everything flows? Today, a simple ‘OK’ will do.
Peace,
Mary Anne