The Measure of a Good Day

What con­sti­tutes a good day for you? What hap­pens that makes you want to declare it a suc­cess? Is it an event, a feel­ing, or a shift in per­spec­tive?
Most peo­ple will try to tie it to an event. Some­thing hap­pens and there is a sur­prise bless­ing. Oth­ers mark it by the com­ple­tion of a task — like grad­u­a­tion day and the party that fol­lows. For me it has to do with a shift in per­spec­tive. Events come and go on their own. Nice weather may enhance a feel­ing. The check­book might reflect a pos­i­tive bal­ance, but the real bot­tom line has to do with a change in a view­point that changes the way I see the rest of the days of my life.
Some­times it is some­thing I read. Some­one puts it together for me on a page, or even in a sin­gle para­graph. The insight is grasped and I am grate­ful for hav­ing found some more words of life. How­ever, the changes that I seem to appre­ci­ate most are the ones that come from within my own deep real­iza­tions. These are the ones that have been ges­tat­ing for months or years. You are dri­ving down the road or mow­ing your lawn and have that “aha” moment. A sneaky smile comes to your face and you feel like the stu­dent that has accu­rately solved the last alge­bra prob­lem on the last alge­bra test he or she will ever have to take.
The men­tal dia­logue that fol­lows has lit­tle phrases in it like: “I wish I could have known this sooner.” Truth is — you could not. All of the other ideas have to be in place for this one to have been born. Enlight­en­ment is a path that mean­ders around some of what appears at first to be the most insignif­i­cant data. Out of seem­ingly ran­dom events come some keen insights.
Read as much as you can. Lis­ten to lit­tle chil­dren. Pay atten­tion the details of nature. Stop think­ing once in a while. Be con­tent to do menial tasks. These seem to trig­ger the key insight. When the thought sur­faces, it appears in the bal­ance between pur­suit and pas­sive recep­tion. Most of all, never under­es­ti­mate the power the new insight. Now go out­side and play.