Blogs - Chief of Pray Blog

“Explain this to me like I'm a six year old, okay?” I always thought that was Danny Devito’s line when he played an attorney in War of the Roses. But, when I googled it to confirm the exact quote, it came up attributed to the movie Philadelphia. Even though I’m not sure exactly where I heard it, I think of those words often. “Explain this to me like I'm a six year old, okay?”

My husband David and I have communication differences. He’s an accountant, he’s an analytical type. Me, I’m a directive— I like to get right to the point. When I talk, it’s often ‘thinking out loud.’ I can ramble on and leave out huge parts of a story or just a word or two. He can’t fill in the blanks, he needs a sentence to be complete and make sense. Go figure! Our conversations often take a turn where David will stop me and say things like; “I don’t know what you’re talking about” and “you didn’t tell me that part.”  So then I start over and this time I use complete sentences, and simple explanations.

Saturday afternoon, I was just settling down for my Shabbat nap. There was a knock at my door and I answered it. Nobody there, except a package from Amazon. It was a book I ordered weeks ago by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose. Change of plans. I read the book all day, much of the night and finished up first thing Sunday morning. If I talk like I think, then Tony writes like he talks. That makes for an easy read. The story, the principles and the ideas in this book are life-changing for me. But that’s another topic for another blog post. Today, it’s about only one word from the book’s title: Happiness.

Hsieh (pronounced Shay), takes 227 pages to create a new business model. He explains how to achieve happiness in only 13 pages. And, he covers it like he’s “explaining it to a six year old.” Tony Hsieh is the ultimate visionary. He started out by researching a relatively new science known as positive psychology: how to make normal people happier. He ends up creating a happiness movement. Here’s the simple truth: Pleasure, passion and purpose make people happy.

It got me thinking about my own vision; Prayables, the multi-faith movement to add more pray to a women’s day. Is my vision really about prayer or is it about happiness? I’ve been pushing prayer for the past twenty years because prayer gives me pleasure. Through prayer I found life has purpose and I became passionate about prayer because it makes me happy.

We had some friends over for a BBQ last night. A bunch of us were sitting around the table, and there’s a few different conversations going on. My (teacher) friend turned to me and whispered, “I have a prayer I say every day. I started saying it at the beginning of the year, and I repeat it about three times a day. You’re going to think I’m crazy... but I feel so much better after saying my prayer, that when I walk into my classroom, I have a whole different attitude. I’m so happy.” I’m going to think she’s crazy? In the infamous words of Miss Piggy, “Moi”?!!!

Grateful Start

Thank You for this day–
a fresh start,
a new opportunity,
a gift from You.

Thank You for filling it
with the joy of friends,
the wonder of what might be,
an awareness that You are here–
watching, waiting, loving,
more awesome than anything
that stands against me.

More loving than anyone
on this Earth.
More than I can imagine.
Thank You.

-Sue Bradford Edwards

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