I have the blessed good fortune of teaching my daughter each day. I love that hour, not only because I get to spend precious time with my eldest kid, but because I get to go back to school. Schools never change – although hemlines and hairstyles might - and the energy and vitality, the loud, bright, beautiful busy noise of school, is there whatever the time of the day and wherever the school.

I’ve had a long relationship with school. I first started school at three, would hang out in my local high school each summer vacation from ten years old, because of my mum’s job as the principal’s assistant. While at university, I’d season work in the school office on my summer vacation and finally, I went back to school permanently when I earned my teaching certificate. If anyone was born under a school star, it was me.

The real richness of school is that children ooze excitement. They race in at the start of the day; they race out at the end of it. They race from one classroom to another and they throw themselves into every moment, every interaction, everything. There’s nothing slow or mundane about a school, especially in the lower grade levels because whatever kids are doing they relish it: PE Science Art, Lunch, Reading – it’s all about enthusiasm, enjoyment, their friendships, pure unadulterated exhilaration and if I could bottle it, I’d be a millionaire overnight.

So, what happens to the ‘ha’ as we age? What becomes of that magical, zest for life? I’ve noticed that it doesn’t disappear! For most of us, there are plenty of times in our life that we feel more ha than blah, but with job losses and illnesses, with emotional distress, divorce, death or the plain old treadmill of life, there are times when we life feels like an uphill battle and rather than running, we find ourselves battling through the blahs.

Blah for me is more than the doldrums. It’s losing interest in life, or in things that were once exciting. I guess the good old DSMIV would class it as depression – where time drags and we can’t get excited about much more than sticking our heads under the covers and zoning out. Unfortunately, with all of the responsibilities that we have zoning out is not a good option, so sometimes people handle their blahs with food, or drink, or drugs, or shopping but those are not the answer either.

For me, turning blah back to ‘ha’, is about reaching upward and outward - upward to God, outward to my community! I’ve never yet been let down when I’ve prayed, so I pray it out of me. Literally pray for help, direction, impetus, determination, guts, whatever it takes for me to walk away from the downward cycle and spiral upwards - and prayer works. After all, God is the maker of all miracles.

Second, I take action, action that are about others and not myself. I smile through the pain and open the door for another person, wish someone well, help out, pray for a friend in need, make a donation to charity, help a kid carry her books up the stairs, – I do anything and everything I can to make a difference in another person’s life. The result – I stop myself dwelling on me. Yippee!

The truth is that when I focus on me and my needs, I see a very small and isolated picture, but when I look beyond myself, when I see myself as a piece in a much larger jigsaw puzzle, I recognize my worth in the world. After all one tiny missing piece of jigsaw, negates the impressiveness of the finished image.

In turning upward to God and outward to the world, I take the steps that lead me to my  ‘aha’ moment and in that moment, I redefine what’s important in my life, what I care about, what I need and then I’m able to take back my spirit and move forward once again in life. It’s called re-orienting oneself to our truth north and when we get back on path, get back on track we turn our back on ‘blah’ and walk away.

So, when you next drive past your neighborhood school and you see the kids running into it, screeching at their friends, laughing, joyful for another day – ask yourself when you last experienced that enthusiasm and zest for life. If it’s been a while, stop your car and say a prayer, a good prayer, a prayer from the heart. Pray for joy, pray for laughter, pray for exuberance and then pray for someone that you know and who is in need. Once you’ve finished your prayer and given thanks, stick a smile on your face and do everything that you can to make the world a brighter place for others; say a kind word, hold the door, thank your mother, tell your spouse you love them – and watch how quickly those blahs dissipates and your world reorients and becomes full of ha, ha, ha.

Recently:

• Living a Life of Love
• Lemonade out of Lemons!
• Wheels within Wheels
• Are you Listening?
• Let Go and Let Flow
• Do What You Love, Love What You Do!
• From Blah to Ha
• The Teachings of Philip
• It’s a Dog’s Life!
• The Joy of Now