The glass. We grow up thinking it’s either half full or half empty, but my mom taught me early on that it’s always both. Obviously, the lesson is in how you perceive it, but even that can be debated. Whenever I fly, right after I scan my boarding pass and while I’m waiting on the ramp to board the plane, I have the same thought. That this is the ONLY time in my life when I will be with this exact combination of people. I always look around and take it in. It’s not that it makes the flight better, or anything, but I feel a slight pinch of magic for a second. Even when days can feel the same, they really aren’t. I was just at the grocery store, and it wasn’t exactly like any other time I have been there. It’s not that it was groundbreaking, but the smiles were different, the people shopping are different, the conversation at checkout was different. And when I pay attention to those details, the day feels a little more special. What is it that we need in a moment, and if we stop making it about ourselves, what can we see?

I got to the pharmacy first thing one Monday morning. There was one customer at the counter and a handful of people working behind. Typically both registers are going and if that had been the case, I would have been in and out in a minute. Do you ever have those moments when you wonder if you are on a hidden camera show? That thought arose this morning because it was taking forever. There was that momentary frustration that came up and then I chose to see it differently. The customer had a lot of prescriptions. Obviously I don’t know for what, but that is indicative of not being in the healthiest state. Compassion. Check. The woman ringing him up did not apply his insurance so they had to start all over. She didn’t do it intentionally to delay my day. And this was not what she wanted to do. Understanding. Check. All of the people behind the counter have different roles and are not necessarily customer facing. It’s not that I’m not important. They know I will be taken care of next. Makes sense. Check. It’s not that I was a superhero in this situation, I just chose to accept it and take it in. And it felt powerful. When it was my turn, the woman at the register said, “thank you for waiting.” I smiled and laughed and said that I didn’t really have a choice. When she came back with my prescription, I thanked her for thanking me. Saying that was so nice. She laughed and said she knew I had been waiting awhile. I told her that I knew she didn’t want to re-ring all of those bottles. This was at 8 something on a Monday morning. We both affected the other’s day positively. That felt powerful. Had I made any of this about me, I would have been rude, and I could feel how that would affect her. Had there not been the “empty,” of the long wait, there would not have been the “full” in our interaction.

If it is always both, what if we can use the “bad” to help the “good?” Where it’s not a total bifurcation, but together they can be more powerful? Here is where I’m going with this. I was heading to the airport for a solo trip to Paris, (Paris!!!), when I received a text from a close childhood girlfriend. She wished me a great adventure and also shared she was in our hometown because her mom was close to passing. We were having very different days, very different life experiences, but because of our history and close bond, they were somehow connected. It reaffirmed the speed of life, how quickly it goes. It reaffirmed the necessity to do all the things when you can. Her mom traveled so much. My girlfriend said to toast her in Paris, and I did light a candle for her in Sacre Coeur. As I wandered through museums, I had the thought that all of the people in the beautiful paintings were gone. All of the artists and sculptors were now gone. It sounds morbid but it didn’t feel like that. It instead felt like an empowered energy to make sure I am sharing my authenticity with the world. And there was this renewed momentum to ensure that I am not playing small or holding back what the world needs from me, because. Life. Goes. So. Fast.

If we are here, which we obviously are…why? It is so much more than a job. More than the things. More than our immediate worlds. Take a bunch of steps back, and what are your thoughts? What are your gifts? I believe that we are created so whole, but then take on the armor to protect us and sadly the limiting beliefs that we pick up from the world. So, all the work is to learn where we are playing small, remove those limitations, and figure out who we are. And then why we are here. Maybe not simple, but definitely exciting.

Decades ago, I started this journey. I knew I needed to make the world a better place but didn’t know where to begin, and was thinking it might be working in a Romanian orphanage. My college alumni magazine arrived at this perfect crossroads moment, and there was a beautiful photo with the caption that basically said, if you want to make the world a better place, you need to start with yourself. So I did, and here I am, making sure I am doing my part. So if the champagne glass of life is always half full and half empty, what is the secret? Probably, perspective. That the empty isn’t always negative, but can fuel the full. It can propel us forward. It can enrich the blessing. I don’t know where this saying came from, but maybe it’s possible that the glass is sometimes half empty because you have already had some to drink. And that’s the magic that can be easy to overlook, but it’s there. XO