No Small Feat

Watched an interview with Carlos Santana yesterday.

He is a fascinating guy. Deeply spiritual. Amazingly positive vibe. The way he describes the music that he makes, makes it clear that the relationship between the music and who he is, is almost seamless.

His reverence for the music, and all that came before to make what he does possible, is how every serious musician should feel.

The interviewer asked about some of the tough stuff in Santana's life. Within his response he said "There's a lot more to celebrate than to mourn."

I was still basking in the glow of the words I posted yesterday about living my life. When stuff like that occurs to me it disturbs my balance; I keep returning to the concept, think it over, wonder if I was being truthful, wonder if those thoughts will impact my life. Wonder if I understand and truly believe what I said.

"There's a lot more to celebrate than to mourn." Those words resonated with me because that describes my life, and does it in a much more poetic way than my attempt to do so.

Then Carlos dropped the gratitude bomb. The interviewer asked how he maintains his passion for the music after so many decades. He said it starts with gratitiude. When he needs inspiration he starts with that.

As he put it, gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. Like a mantra. He focuses on that and thinks about all the things he is grateful for. Little things as well as big. Like being grateful for his success, and being grateful for the excellent meal he just ate. 

I love the idea of being grateful for little things. It seems to me it narrows the focus of your life down to a manageable level that can dramatically increase your daily happiness. No small feat.

When Warren Zevon was suffering with terminal lung cancer, David Letterman (a friend) very gently asked him if he had any words of advice. Warren said "Enjoy every sandwich."

Boom. Same thing. I loved his answer.

I avoid gratitude. Always seemed like a wimpy thing to me. It always felt like a disingenuous piece of the whole phony happiness puzzle that people use to fool themselves into thinking they are happy.

Like "I was just diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and given 6 months to live. Well, at least I'll get to see the end of the football season."

Give me a break.

However, as I thought about it, if I am going to accept that I am actually living my life, I might as well throw gratitude into the mix. It makes sense. I covered some of that yesterday when I talked about Carol, Keith & Craig (I moved you guys ahead of the cats), The Cats etc.

But I wasn't thinking about it in terms of gratitude.

Now I am. I need to be more open about my definition of strength and weakness.

I need to think about the good things in my life in terms of gratitude. I need to feel gratitude. Gratitude as a solid concept. One that I can use as inspiration towards happiness.

I read a ton of biographies and autobiographies. These are obviously people I respect. Beyond being fascinated by their lives and their accomplishments, I am always looking for nuggets of wisdom that resonate with me.

The people with true wisdom always come through.

Carlos Santana is a beautiful human being. And he graciously shares that beauty with us through his music.

He got me serious about gratitude.

No small feat.