Tag: Enjoy Life

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Every Sunrise, Every Sunset

All around the world, regardless of who we are, we all experience the same day. No matter our name, skin color, gender, culture, circumstances, we all share a common existence. Every 24 hours, we experience the same mile-markers as everyone else on this earth, including a sunrise and sunset.

If you let them, sunrises and sunsets almost always get your attention. They are the most beautiful, vibrant and colorful things you will see on a given day. They present a time for reflection and meditation. They can help you to stop and think. Sunrises present renewal and a fresh start. Sunsets represent completion and fulfilled goals.

Each minute of the rising or setting sun is different than the other. It’s a masterpiece painting, but a painting that slowly changes every time you look up and study it.

If I forget, my dear son, take the time to get strength from each sunrise and bask in every sunset.

I try to do this every day now. In fact, the picture that accompanies this post includes a project where I tried to take as many photos of sunrises and sunsets for one year. It’s something I don’t think I will ever stop doing.

We only have some 27,740 number of days to live on this earth (plus or minus a few thousand). For the first 15 to 20 years of our life, we probably aren’t focused on things like sunrises or sunsets. So you can quite quickly subtract 7,000 from that number. Then, in a place like Ohio, it is sunny or partly sunny about 50 percent of the time. Before long, you come to about 10,000 sunrises and 10,000 sunsets. That’s not very many… And every day, you have one less.

There have been times in my life where I have not appreciated sunrises and sunsets. I was too busy, too distracted. Running on a wheel.

My child, get up early. Drink in every sunrise, and bask in every sunset. You will be thankful you did.

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Enjoy Every Day…Every Single Day

There are going to be good days, and bad ones. You will wake up and the sun will be shinning and you will be in a great mood, and sometimes there will be dark clouds you cannot shake. During some stages in life, a lot will be going your way, and at other times you will feel like the whole world is against you. There is no doubt that life is a roller coaster.

Regardless of what is happening in your life, remind yourself to enjoy every day. This really is a simple concept, but it is hard to put into practice. In fact, I try most days to do this, some days better than others. But it’s a basic truth, in which I strongly believe.

Here is what we do, especially as adults. We spend our days trying to get to the next thing, the next event, weekend, vacation, etc. We push through and ignore the present to try and get to some future expectation of fun. As we do this, life passes us by. We aren’t enjoying the moment. We aren’t stopping and thinking about all the good things that are in our life right now.

It gets worse. We spend a lot of time thinking about the past. We question what we or others did, we wonder what would have happened if things went differently. While, at the same time, we allocate much focus on worrying about the future. What if this doesn’t go right? Fears of the unknowable future, can consume and paralyze our present thinking.

So, son, daughter, enjoy every day.

Look at the word en-joy. En means “to cause a person to be in.” Also, if you look at the history of the word it comes from the Old French enjoir “to give joy, rejoice, take delight in.” Look at the day that you are IN. What around you should be making you happy right now? Also, who are you interacting with daily? Are you GIVING them joy?

Enjoyment is something that is active. It’s a matter of living and a state of being. We can enjoy a meal, a drink or a movie, but why can’t we enjoy every moment of our lives? Why can’t we enjoy every second we spend together? To properly enjoy something, it includes action to others. By talking about it, by showing it, we end up doing it.

So, my dear son, push yourself to be in joy, be sure to give joy.

Enjoy every day…