A New Year Should Bring Even More PLAY. . .

It seems serendipitous that I've run across a story told by Fil Anderson, that has helped me articulate what has been wandering around my little brain. . . that is, 'Is life more than being busy pursuing happiness?"

A couple summers ago a story circulated around Wrightsville Beach about an investment banker from a large city who was vacationing in this delightful North Carolina coastal town. Standing on a small pier late one afternoon, he watched as a lone fisherman docked his small boat. Inside the boat were several large yellowtail tuna.

The banker complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The local replied, "Only a little while."
The banker then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"
The local said, "With this I have more than enough to feed my family and share with my friends."
The banker then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take naps with my wife, stroll into town each evening where I sip wine and play the guitar with my friends. I have a full and busy life."
The banker scoffed, "I could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. Then with the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would, however, have to move to a larger city, perhaps eventually to New york where you would run your ever expanding enterprise."
The fisherman, intrigued, asked, "But how long will all this take?"
"Fifteen to twenty years," the banker replied.
"But what then?" asked the fisherman.
The banker laughed. "Here's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions."
"Millions?" the fisherman asked. "The what?"

The banker said, "Then you would retire, move to a small fishing town where you would sleep late, play with your kids, take naps with your wife, stroll into town in the evenings where you would sip wine and play your guitar with your friends."

As the future unfolds, literally within the next few hours, could this be a bigger idea than simply a new year's resolution of the "pursuit of happiness"?

2008 is soon to fade away into history for the entire planet and many I'm sure are looking for that "pursuit of happiness" It's been polled that when parents were asked what they wanted for most for their kids, 9 out of 10 wished for their kids to find "happiness". This may sound like a great thing, and in some circumstances it just possibly could be. However, I believe that all too often our idea of happiness is warped and totally miss-placed. For example, we see how most of our "ideas" of "happiness" is warped by how easy we tend to change perspectives, jobs, houses, cars, friends, and even lovers. Really, don't we tend to say, "We'll if it don't make me happy, than...?"

Somewhere deep inside of me, I seem to think that maybe this fisherman understood that life, a full life, offered more than "instant happiness". Just maybe he grasped a fuller understanding of a life filled with "deep relationships"!

So, may your new year be filled with a passion to . . . "sleep late, play with your kids, take naps with your wife, stroll into town in the evenings where you would sip wine and play your guitar with your friends."

And as our moments are filled with both joy and sorrow (because life is filled with these moments kissing each other daily), may we all cherish our relationships with friends, family, and even strangers, in the future as they unfold within the present. Simply, may we live our new year filled with a life to the fullest instead of busyness!

Happy New Year . . .



And take it from my daughter, go play and love each other as He first loved us, in relationship!