I Was Just Thinking What to do on a Rainy Sunday Afternoon? December 2006

by Dr. Don Huntington

I know what to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon, or any time. Actually, my problem is just the opposite of the one mentioned in the quote because I have a difficult time choosing from among the various options that are available.

For example, there are ten people I could spend hours with talking to on the phone. Plus, I have games for my Nintendo DS and running on my Mac that I never have time to play. I could visit my Aunt Fae and my Hansen cousins because I never have as much time to spend with them as I wish.

My 32" digital TV has a ridiculous number of channels and our DVR is always approaching overload because of the great programs and movies we have stored up, that we never seem to have time to watch.

A movie theater located within walking distance from our house has 16 screens — at least two showing movies I would watch if I had time, with 100 more at a Blockbuster right in our neighborhood. I’m currently reading four wonderful books, with a dozen more that I’m anxious to start as soon as I can get to them. My Mac is connected to the Internet over a cable modem with a bookmark directory containing about 25 Internet sites that I wish I had time to visit every day.

Actually, on a rainy Sunday afternoon I would be most likely to get out my laptop and do some work rather than do any of these things. I enjoy the tasks belonging to my profession as much as I enjoy any form of recreation!

There’s a better way of living, however, than merely finding ways to keep myself occupied, because I can fill my life with light and happiness by doing nothing more than simply waking myself up to the beauty of the world that surrounds me.

Little 13-year-old Anne Frank, hiding in an attic from Nazis soldiers who were seeking to put her and her entire family to death, was able to write in her famous journal the amazing words, “Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”

The young girl remained cooped up in her little hidey-hole for more than two years. If Anne Frank ever felt bored she wasn’t able to take trips to visit relatives. She had no access to libraries, video games, computers, the Internet, television, or movies. But she apparently knew what it was to be happy with a joy that had its sources in her heart.

Anne Frank’s discovery of beauty and happiness in the dark room where she hid along with some others for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, didn’t call for supernatural abilities. And her ability to experience joy in those wretched circumstances shouldn’t come as a surprise.

After all, we have always known the principle that “Happiness is where you find it.” Most of us can no longer remember when we first heard Shakespeare’s words “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”

Following Anne Frank’s lead, let me put aside all the stuff I mentioned that I can use to keep myself from being bored and ask the question. What beautiful things are around me to make my life full of light and to make me happy?

I believe that the beauty of the universe is uncovered in ten rules for happiness that I read one day:

1. Give something away (no strings attached)
2. Do a kindness (and forget it)
3. Spend a few minutes with the aged (their experience is a priceless guidance)
4. Look intently into the face of a baby (and marvel)
5. Laugh often (it’s life’s lubricant)
6. Give thanks (a thousand times a day is not enough)
7. Pray (or you will lose the way)
8. Work (with vim and vigor)
9. Plan as though you’ll live forever (because you will)
10. Live as though you’ll die tomorrow (because you will on some tomorrow)

These are easy rules and comprise immaterial activities that I could engage in on any rainy afternoon.

These rules have the power to open me up to beauty. A small girl could do most of them while living in a crowded attic hiding from people who wanted to kill her.

“Happiness is a choice,” Adair Lara wrote, “Reach out for it at the moment it appears, like a balloon drifting seaward in a bright blue sky.”

I’m going to grab for it today! It is always well within my reach!  °

Dr. Don Huntington
Editorial Director
don@110mag.com