enthusiasm

I love Easter

April 24, 2011 by Rosa Say

Easter is unrestrained, enthusiastic abundance.
It’s a basket of treats which never gets empty if you look hard enough,
Look by closing your eyes and feeling what’s there.

I love all of it, and that there’s a lot to love.

I love the lead up of Lent and Good Friday (good Catholic girl that I am), and
I love the glory of the day when Easter arrives.
I love that we expect that glory, and that wonder.

I love the pastel colors, and even the fake Easter grass.

I love seeing the Peeps in the market, and
I love getting that craving for marshmallow, and for
Cadbury malt.

I love the Easter Eggs, and everything we do about them, and with them.
I love the decorating with homemade dyes, and
I love making bunny footprints with flour.

I love our creativity, and even our indulgence.

I love all the chocolate and all the sugar.
I love that I will eat Easter’s treats without a shred of hesitation or guilt.

Oh! How I love the blooming.

I love the flowers — there are so many to love!

I love the greenery too, both lush and still tender,
The leafing (is that a word?) that is everywhere.

I love the art.

I love the playfulness that Easter critters inspire.

I love the chicks and bunnies, birds and butterflies.
I love them all showing us their softer sides,
All willing to become characters which are cartoons of themselves.

Even frogs wear Easter well.

I remember how we made Easter bonnets in kindergarten.
Do you?

I wish
we all
still wore
Easter bonnets
now.
Crepe paper, feathers, ribbons and all.
And no matter how old we have become.
We could still wear them well… silly grins included.
(Those red hat ladies are on to something.)

I love that Easter happens in the Spring.
(especially when it happens in April, and not in March).

I love that Easter day means Easter Sunday.
Sunday is elemental peacefulness.
Sunday is thankfulness and gratitude.
Sunday is Mālama time.

I love our reverence on Sunday, and our humility.
Our awe.
Our respect.
And Ha‘aha‘a as a value that looks like laughing no matter how you pronounce it.

I love the Palena ‘ole exuberance of Easter.
I love the joy of its Ka lā hiki ola flavored promises.

Easter renews us.
It’s vibrant.
It’s hopeful.
It’s a beauty which is very, very good for us.

It’s even beauty in that plastic, yet amazing Easter cellophane;
Purple, yellow, pink, and a green that isn’t really green at all,
But some kind of cool bluing. Prisms.

I love that Easter is about Faith.
I love that Easter is about Believing.

It’s amazing resilience, and Resurrection, I know, but you know what else?
Easter is a day to love your life, just as it is.

And yet,
Easter is also a day to think about flourishing in new ways.

So do that. Flourish.

Love Easter with me, and feel it love you back.

Get a Jump on it (and on 2011!)

December 29, 2010 by Rosa Say

What are you intending to start, that you can begin today?
Ka lā hiki ola; it’s the dawning of a new day!
[Reference: Ka lā hiki ola is the Epilogue of Managing with Aloha, and the value of newness and hope.]

Jerry Seinfeld has his Red X, and I have my Green Checkmark…

It’s been walking for me (as in walking for health and fitness).

Early 2010 had brought me some immobilizing back pain. Major ouch and workout killer. Turned out my daily street running had cost me dearly, the pavement impact eroding away my lower spine’s disk cushioning. Healing has been steady but s.l.o.w. and my running days are over, but walking is still good and I’ve finally gotten the green light to ramp up my distance on a daily basis again.

That alone was fabulous news, but you know what made it even better? Starting yesterday, on the 28th, and knowing that a whole New Year was mere days away. It is incredibly sweet to work on a new goal EARLY, feeling the goodness of a fresh habit started with enthusiastic rhythm.

So what about you? What can you begin for 2011 today?

Are you someone who says, “I still have time”” or someone who says, “Why wait?”

Kukupa‘u: Be Enthusiastic!

January 8, 2010 by Rosa Say

“E kukupa‘u ana no i kāna hana”

Put all you have into your work;
Kukupa‘u, with great enthusiasm, with might and main.”
—Pukui Elbert

Be excited that it’s Friday.

Friday, and not the day before the weekend, because working on Friday rocks too!

My favorite book in 2009 was an impulse buy while trolling a bookstore, killing time: A paperback that I have turned to daily because it makes me feel so great about being alive, and being able. It’s the kind of book I wish I’d written, and I still hope to write one day, but if that day never comes, I will still be very happy with this one by my side: The Greatness Guide by Robin Sharma.

Here is a great way to approach the day: It’s Aloha Friday, Pō‘alima

From page 78:

Be Wildly Enthusiastic

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is due to the triumph of enthusiasm.”

Samuel Ullman observed: “Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

Enthusiasm matters.

The people I love to be around are generally those that have a simple, heartfelt quality: They are enthusiastic. Wildly so. They are open to life. They are curious. They love to learn. They smile when they see me. And they have a lot of fun. Play hard, or don’t play at all.

Today, show up at work with all the enthusiasm you can genuinely muster. Be outrageously energetic and madly alive. See the best in people. Go the extra mile to delight your customers. See the opportunity for learning and personal evolution amidst a seeming setback. Embrace change as a chance to grow. Have a laugh with a teammate. Tell your loved ones you adore them. Spread some passion. I’ll be the first to agree that you can’t control what happens to you each day. But with an abundance of enthusiasm, I have no doubt that whatever the coming hours bring, you will handle them with grace, strength, and a smile.

Be outrageously energetic and madly alive.

—Robin Sharma
(I took the liberty of adding the links to others in our enthusiastic Ho‘ohana Community :)

Dragon Boy Tru, by Bren on Flickr

“E kukupa‘u ana no i kāna hana”

Be Wildly Enthusiastic

“E kukupa‘u ana no i kāna hana”