in which simple smiles are the best smiles. Because they are. Yes?
Excitement is such a strange thing. We’re usually so hard to impress. With the internet and television, we’ve already seen everything. And if we’ve seen it all, then how can we really be overwhelmed with amazement and take joy in anything?!
Well, it’s up to us to be overwhelmed and excited about life…life won’t do it for us.
In the last two weeks I’ve seen 3 people who have so much to teach us about being excited and smiling where we otherwise might not.
1. Double Rainbow. [All the way.]
If you haven’t, I would really like it if you watched this: Double Rainbow [Click Click]
Being awe-struck doesn’t often happen to us, but here’s this guy who was literally knocked to the ground by the intensity of the rainbow rays! That’s amazement!
It’s so beautiful. The rainbow, yes, but what’s really beautiful about it is Bear’s reaction to the rainbow. [That’s his name—Bear!] His reaction is so pure. So shiny.
I don’t know about you, but I want that kind of double rainbow amazement in my life every day!
In some peoples’ books, Bear is a hippie dippie pothead.
In my book, Bear has life figured out!
I don’t feel like I can really add much to a video of this calibre, so I’ll leave it at that! ; )
2. And Shaky Bootie Lady!
A week ago I was sitting in the coffee shop, drawing bunnies, shakin’ my butt to Outkast or the Beatles or whatever music was playing. Beside me was a woman. [We’ll call her Lady.] Like me, and like everybody else, Lady was at her computer, headphones on, typing away. But she was so excited!!
Lady’d raise her hands above the keyboard, and she would shake them with excitement before plunging back down and pounding out a flurrious [hehe] string of words.
She bounced and danced in her seat to whatever she was listening to, but it still seemed like she was far more entertained by her own typing.
Every few minutes she boxed at the air in front of her or threw her fists to the sky victoriously with a smile!
And three or four times she broke out into loud laughter over what she had just written, and wound up mumbling to herself and smiling before typing again.
She was having her own double rainbow experience, just typing away, talking to herself, amusing herself as best she could!
Yet most of us are afraid to even breath too loudly in public.
This went on for an hour before I had to leave, but Lady impressed on my so strongly that the next week when I was in the same coffee shop with a friend, I told her about this woman I had seen a week before, how she danced and laughed, not caring at all about the people giving her weird looks.
My friend and I talked for awhile, and then as we left I was shocked to see Lady! And there she was…at her laptop again, headphones on, dancing in her chair, laughing to herself, and typing away joyfully! We didn’t stay, but if we had, I’m sure we would’ve seen a fist or two thrown into the air.
In some peoples’ books, Lady has a mental disability.
In my book, Lady has life figured out!
The thought I couldn’t shake sitting next to this woman was that I had so much to learn from her. I want her to be my mentor!
3. My Crazy, Wet, Crab-Walking Friend
This weekend, my friend Mila was sad. So I brought her chocolate and salty bread to cheer her up. It was past midnight and we sat at the park pond, watching the park lights ripple on the water. We cried. We laughed.
And half an hour later Mila jumped into the pond, fully clothed!
We wound up splashing around at 1am performing an interpretive dance about recent events in her life, me hiking my pajama pants up chasing after her as she crab walked through the water.
We went back home, pathetically wet and happy. But it was a beautiful reminder to me that at any moment, we’re just one hop away from a double rainbow! But it’s up to us to make that hop…
Hop…hop…
So Bring This To Your Life!
Because we’ve seen it all, if we want to be amazed and if we want to be moved, we won’t find it by seeking a more intense thrill. Or through a more incredible experience. Life is exciting whether you’re sitting at a coffee shop typing, watching a rainbow, sitting at home, or walking home from work…if you want it to be.
It’s up to us to make life worth living. All we need is to make the experiences we already have more intense and incredible, to free up a little bit of the inhibitions we have. This double rainbow amazement isn’t something that life is going to bring to us—it’s something we have to bring to life!
[Next post…less motivational! I promise!] : )
<3
] chloe [
