Why Live A Yes-Life?

​Dear Why Team member,
I hope this week's message finds you safe, sound, and encouraged.
This week we continue with our "Yes" versus "No" theme.

​Why is it best to have a bias to "Yes"?

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Audio : 🗣

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The past week has had a couple of cloudy days, but Saturday ended up being a bright sunny day. I took the opportunity to drive to a nearby park for a run, and the implosion of cars in the parking lot, the beautiful green grass, sunny blue sky, the couples that were walking and biking and a few children running around with colorful kites made me so grateful to be alive and able to have this experience. I forgot the fun of running a kite. Everyone was being respectfully distant, and even if some smiles were covered by masks, you could see the joy in their eyes.

Continuing on last weeks' theme, do you live more a Yes-life or more a No-life?
Answers to the following questions may lend a clue.

How do you react when you don't get what you want, or feel you deserve? When unexpected events arise, do you find yourself becoming hot under the collar, or are you more likely to remain cool? And if not cool at first, do you quickly regain your composure to look for the lessons at hand?

There is often no life to the "No" life approach. One could even say that where there is no life, there is death. We all know those who are among the walking dead, do they not all have a bias to "No"?!
It's easy to say yes to what we want, but can we say yes to what we don't want? Yes, to what life is bringing us? Yes, to the lessons that are before us? Do you get annoyed at the lemons or get busy making lemonade?
Are the lemons here to "aide" us?
Put the lemons into perspective, how beautiful does a healthy lemon tree look, the green leaves complemented by the bright lemons which when squeezed, mixed with water, sugar and chilled make the most quenching drink. Can you taste it? It surely was someone who had a Yes-life, a yes bias to life, that invented lemonade.

How can our character be built without adversity?
No one asks for a character-building experience, but can we learn to say yes to it when it comes? Can we not take a moment to find truth in this? Yes? 
Or are we too busy saying no like a spoiled child who is angry that the world does not revolve around them? We all have that child within us, maybe life's greatest gift to us is the maturing of us, the growing of us, providing the winds to strengthen us, so that we may grow taller and see farther - rising above our propensity to live a no-life, which has us saying no to what life brings us. And when growing up, don't forget the joy you experienced at the winds taking your kite to new heights. What is there to be learned, how can saying yes mean more for us and for those in which we care most? Can we, like the kite, saying yes to the wind, rise above the No's that are most often about us, and say yes to what will lift us higher to be more for ourselves and others?

How does a No-life get a life?
Start by saying, Yes!

Live a Yes-life! As the saying goes, "Resistance is futile." Of course, out of fear, there will be times upon reflection that you will wish you had said no. But my experience has been that it is far better to live a Yes-life sometimes wishing you had said no, than a No-life sometimes wishing you had said yes. With a Yes-life, there is always at least an experience to be had and a lesson to be learned.
Say more Yes to what life gives you, and you will have more life to give.

Make it a great week!

steve Luckenbach