As life changes, our perspectives change – hopefully. When I owned my bookstore, yes I owned a bookstore. The very quick, no detail backstory. When I was 19 and in college my mother opened a new age bookstore. Over the years I was her wingman through a variety of adventures and challenges as she ran it. When I was 35 she died and I took over the store as I believed it was her legacy and keeping it alive somehow …. well anyway. I didn’t realize until much later that my sister and I were actually her legacy, but that’s another blog, another day.
In 1995, as I took over the bookstore, it grossed 107k. In 2002, when I closed the store (actually God burnt it down, but that’s also another story), it grossed just shy of 1M. At the time, I was also partner in an import company, a consortium of three companies capturing three sectors of the marketplace which also did very well. End – backstory.
Anyway, perspective. Once again I am sitting on the 19th floor, in a resort hotel, drinking an $8 bottle of water. A bottle we’d pay $3 for at home. In so many ways this is the life. It’s relaxing, restful and rejuvenating. We are with friends – new and old. The sights are peaceful and fill the senses. Warm tropical breezes, sea spray, hundreds of palm trees and at every turn a smiling onlooker waiting to serve you. There are yachts anchored that easily have more square footage than my house. Everything is self-contained. You can sleep, swim, bask by the multitude of pools, ride water slides, gamble in the casino, dance in the after-hour clubs, hang in the bars and on the way to the variety of restaurants stop in at any number of shops and kiosks to pick up a Rolex, diamond, emerald keepsake – or overpriced bottle of water.
Last night walking back from an extravagant sushi dinner, a friend said he looked at the yachts and thought wouldn’t that be cool yet he also liked his “simple life.”
The simple life. There have been times in my life that I was a lot closer to living the luxurious life. Never a four-story yacht but certainly extravagance could be had without a lot of thought or planning. I am 54 years old and couldn’t begin to count the amount of money spent on extravagance, luxury, thrown on a whim, eaten, guzzled or gambled in some fashion or other. Don’t get me wrong – no regrets. Zero. Just reflection of how perception changes. How the things that bring peace, the things that fill my soul, the life that brings satiation changes.
I guess it comes down to we choose happiness. I have said about marriage for years – a happy marriage is choice, love is choice. Everyday you wake up and choose to love your spouse another day – this day. Choose to make this day about him/her. Same for life. Everyday you wake up and choose happiness. Choose to revel in the little things, the ‘simple’ things before you. Whether your vantage point for the day is from the 19th floor of a resort hotel, from behind your desk, from watching your child at swim lessons or cleaning the house that God has blessed you with. Revel in the simplicity. Choose to be happy. There is nothing wrong with striving for more. Nothing wrong with success and a drive to be better – wanting to be the best. But if waiting for another day, yearning for another season of life, always looking toward tomorrow robs you of the happiness and simplicity of today then you are missing Gods greatest blessing – that today God gave you breath and the opportunity to be happy this day.
