What I Don’t Have
On Sunday, driving home from a late breakfast with a dear friend where we had talked at length about a lot of deep and powerful topics, I flicked on the radio in my car to find distraction. Something a little more cheery.
The last time I had been in the car was Friday night as I drove home from work, and I had listed to NPR. So when I turned on the radio on Sunday, what I found waiting for me was the unmistakable voice of Garrison Keillor and his show “A Prairie Home Companion“.
Oh lord, really? That show gives me the hives. To be honest, NPR kind of does too. I do like All Things Considered on an evening commute, though.
That said, the sonorous voice of Mr. Keillor managed to lure me in and I listened to him tell a long, drawn out story (can he tell any other kind?) the point of which is that a penny given by a poor man has more value than a dollar given by a rich man because the penny means so much more. The poor man is giving what he doesn’t have.
Which then lead to a life lesson of giving what you don’t have to the world.
A short Google search led me to discover this is all a riff on a Wayne Dyer speech, which lead me to break out in even more hives. Lots and lots of itchy hives.
So for as much as I wanted to forget this little parable, somehow I have not been able to.
This idea of digging deep and giving what you don’t have, not just in terms of money, but of yourself, has somehow found a home inside of me.
Today as I contemplated the blank page and watched the cursor blink at me, awaiting my command, I went inside my head and asked what I wanted to write about. What am I feeling? What’s on my mind?
What’s on my mind are very dark, angry thoughts. I thought of writing about these dark blotches on my psyche, spewing my venom out onto the page, which, truly, can be very uplifting and releasing.
But is that good fodder to publish to the world on a blog page?
Maybe not.
That’s when the phrase came to me again. Give what you don’t have.
What I don’t have right now is peace, joy, happiness, calm and ease within my own skin.
How possibly can I give what I really don’t have? What about the old phrase “you can’t feed someone from an empty vessel”?
Hmph. Determined to see this through, I set out to write a blog post giving cheer and optimism to the world because both are in rather short supply for me right now.
Um. Yeah.
Where to start?
Google, of course.
And so here’s what I found. I share it because it made me smile. Gave me a little hope. Brought the light back on in my eyes, if only for a moment.
Now I give that to you.
The gift of optimism:
Image from Babble.com
