With Joy

See a bright future -- a sparkling tomorrow, a sunny next week, next year. Be happy about your future. Be happy about your present. Be happy.

Let life be a wedding -- be the bride and the groom. Feel giddy with gladness, with happiness. Today is the best day of your life.

Invest in brightness, contentment. Invest in the world's song. Give yourself to it. Give your thoughts and time to it. Enjoy being alive. Enjoy your now.

Be happily busy. Fix what you need to fix, go where you need to go, speak to whom you need to speak, with joy. It's awesome, wonderful, marvelous to be alive.

Say it again, with sincerity, with heart: it's awesome, wonderful, marvelous to be alive.

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Resilient

A manufacturer takes pride in his product's ability to stand up to all types of adverse conditions without breaking down. We should likewise rejoice at the idea of being able to stand up to all types of problems and setbacks, keeping a smile on our face and in our hearts, and not breaking down.*

*The Talmud teaches that ideally we should "rejoice in sufferings" - Shabbos 88b

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First Class

Look at two people at an international airport: one with a large set of matching luggage -- trunks, suitcases, satchels, hatboxes, etc., the other with no more than a small bag. Certainly, the first seems to be wealthier, luckier, happier. But appearances are deceiving. For, the second person, the person with no more than a bag, may be traveling from one luxury house to another -- a palace where he need not take even a toothbrush. Both his homes contain full sets of clothing and every other item, large or small, that he might possibly need.

How can we know if this is so? Let's see how he travels. If he sits in first-class, then our assumption must be true.

Similarly, there are people who need much luggage to travel through life. Otherwise, they feel they are lacking, unfortunate, unhappy. Then there are the people who live with little. Are these the richer or the poorer? It depends on how they travel. If they travel first-class -- if there lives are full, satisfying, happy -- if they keep smiling no matter what happens -- then we must say that they are wealthy. We must say that they are the richer of the two.

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Something Special

Do you have something special to smell -- a rose, clean laundry, tasty food, fresh air? Breathe it in. Enjoy it. Say "What a great moment. What a wonderful life."

Look around you. Notice the colors of your surroundings. Notice the shapes. Notice the movement -- the branch that sways in the wind, the bird that hops on the windowsill, the rain that sprinkles the grass. Drink in the beauty. Enjoy it. Say "What a stunning world. What an awesome life."

Listen to the noises of the moment -- rumbling thunder, rumbling traffic, soft chatter, music. Feel the fabrics within your reach -- cool metal, soft wool, shiny plastic, rough rug. Soak in your surroundings. Enjoy being alive. Say "What special gifts the Creator gives me."

Make an effort to be happy each day, each hour. Make an effort to be happy, now.

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Passion

We need to hide our passion.

Without passion, we do not accomplish much. We may go through the motions of building, doing -- but the results are shabby, sloppy. To act with passion, however, is to act with "all your heart, all your life, and all your resources" (Devarim 6.4). Only magnificent efforts lead to magnificent results.

On the other hand, when we act with open passion, we upset others. We arouse their jealousy, their resentment. We cause them to jeer us, condemn us, even throw us into jail. This, in turn, discourages us, and dampens our eagerness.

Therefore, we must hide the passion.

"But," you may ask, "If I hide my passion, how will I inspire others to great deeds?"

The wonderful thing about passion is that even when hidden, it still glows - it still shines through. Its glimmer is strong enough to attract just those people we need to influence and encourage.

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Nothing Other

Even if we have nothing other than the Creator helping us through our lives, we have a fortune. For, as He has helped us from birth to this day, so we can well hope He will help us through to the end as well.

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A Favorite Friend

If a favorite friend gave you a gift -- a gift that cost him thought and time, effort and money -- you would be grateful. Even if you did not understand this gift, even if it did not suit your tastes, still you would thank him. You wouldn't want to injure his feelings.

We must do no less then with the gift of life -- the gift the Creator extends to us. We may not understand this gift -- it may not suit our tastes -- still, we say thank you. We don't want to injure the Creator's "feelings".

Moreover -- we must know -- that if the Creator himself -- the billionaire of all billionaires, the Creator of all creators, the Genius of all geniuses, the Kindness of all kindness, the Love of all love -- gives us this gift, it must contain great value. There must be a prize beyond what we realize -- a worth beyond what we know buried in this gift. We need to unlock its secret -- its excitement and greatness -- and find the treasure of life.

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