When American songwriter Johnny Marks released The Most Wonderful Day of the Year, I was seven years old. It was 1964 and wow…what a year!
The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and vaulted to #1 with their hit single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” launching the ‘British invasion’, the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup against Detroit and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor married for the first time in Montreal.
And on June 13th, with a smile and a thumbs-up sign, Nelson Mandela began serving a life sentence in prison. Before being taken away, he made a 28 minute speech which I read for the first time this morning. My guess is these closing sentences still resonate with many people worldwide decades later:
“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
What caught my attention today, a few short days before ‘the most wonderful day of the year’ are Nelson Mandela’s kind words “all persons live together in harmony”.
Such a simple message, yet many people are saying how they are too busy, life is too hectic, and this time of year is one huge ‘hassle’.
If this rings true for you maybe it doesn’t need to be this way.
You can change your experience very easily if you want to.
Take 30 seconds each morning to set your ‘intention’. Several times throughout the day simply STOP what you’re doing and for 3 seconds pay close attention to everything around you. Remember what your intention is. Check inside. Do your thoughts and actions feel authentic and congruent with your intention? If not, you can easily activate a different state and decide to change what you’re doing.
And when you don’t know what state you want – give harmony a try…. then notice what happens next!