Have a nice day!
Do
we not hear this so often? Every time our eyes meet someone else's on
the road, in our office, at the grocery store or just about anywhere...
We instinctively go "How are you doing?" replied with an equally
mechanical "Good! How are you?" while our feet continue on their path.
Just
in case, we do stop to have a conversation with a familiar face, we end
it with a 'Have a nice day!" and "You too!". Day in & day out, we
exchange these pleasantries, majorly without our conscious brains
involved. Today however, I got jolted by an answer, which on the face seemed pretty similar and routine, but it was different. When I walked away from someone at
the water-cooler with a 'Have a nice day!", he replied with a "You do
the same!". I almost stopped... not because it was an answer other than the regular, but because it had a different
connotation. Or so I felt!
'Have
a nice day' has a pretty passive undertone to it... like, I get to have
what the day gives me. But the verb in "you do the same" is a lot more direct and
action-oriented. It tells me that I can do something about it. I do
not need to meekly accept whatever treatment the day metes out to me.
This thought is very enabling and energizing.
But
what can I do? Do I have the power to create my own day? Can I really
make it nice even when it is not... which it usually is? There is so much
happening in and around me, and hardly is there a thing which is in my
control. How can I do something about my day when I am not able to
choose what happens to me and my world? How can I have a nice day?
It is
true. There is so much in the world around me that I cannot change to
my liking. If there is snow, then there is snow, and I have to clean it
off my car & my driveway. If it rains then it rains, and I have to
walk through puddles of dirty water. If there's traffic and I am stuck,
then I am stuck. If I have a mean boss or warmongering colleagues then
that's the way it is. If business is slow, then it's slow. Life is
constantly sending things our way, and so many of them aren't things
that we like.
So,
the question still persists... how do I make my day nice? The answer
lies in a combination of physics and meta-physics. Sir Newton
proclaimed in his 3rd law that 'every action has an equal & opposite
reaction'. While it may not be true for all of physics, this postulate
holds the key to my problem. It is the reaction that matters. What
happens is beyond my control, but how I react to it, is always in my
control. I can choose to react in the way I want. I can either give an
'equal & opposite' reaction or do it a bit differently. The best way
to make our day nice, is to react gracefully. Grace, I would say, is
the beauty of life. It is grace that makes a dance beautiful. It is
grace that makes speech beautiful. It is grace that makes giving
beautiful. Grace added to anything makes the latter beautiful. So why not my reaction, and why not my day?
Let
life throw anything at me, I will catch it gracefully. Let life ask me
questions, I will answer gracefully. Let life line up challenges my way, I
will live upto them gracefully. Let life even send me joys, and I will
enjoy them gracefully. It is the reaction that makes all the difference.
I can choose to have a nice day irrespective of what lies around the
corner, just by spicing up my reactions with a little bit of grace. The spicier, the tastier!
And where do I get this grace from? From my Father. Just pick some from the constant showering of His unending grace.You will never run out of it.
Cheers!
