Way to Unreasonable Happiness

Dan Millman's book, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, is an amazing journey of self-discovery and enlightenment. It was a very fluid read and an eye-opening experience. The author unveils that the way to Happiness is by being present along the journey. Every step of the journey is important. There are no ordinary moments. There is in actuality no hierarchy, just the illusion based on our preference. So our college graduation is not intrinsically better than the last day of vacation or garbage recycling day or even this very moment. It all matters, because "the Essence of Aliveness matters; the details do not." Beneath all circumstances, thoughts & emotions lies "the innate perfection of one's life unfolding. That is the secret of unreasonable happiness."

Another book I love that delves into the magic available in each moment as it unfolds is Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment. Authors Ariel and Shaya Kane explain that if you trade in your preferences for the willingness to be in each moment as it actually is, you will be rewarded with extraordinary well-being. Since reading these works I have had many examples of "unreasonable happiness" in my own life. A recent 6+ hour wait in an airport in Costa Rica, which ended with a cancelled flight and an unexpected overnight stay, became a delightful adventure and an opportunity to set aside my preferences and have well-being. One had only to look at the faces of other passengers to see that this was not the common response to the situation. But as I have begun to engage in each moment, without prejudice, my life has opened up to unexpected sources of actual joy & well-being.

Thing a Week

My friend, Stephen, showed me this totally adorable video based upon a song composed & recorded by a wonderful artist, Jonathan Coulton. For those of you who have never heard of him, Coulton made himself a promise to compose & record one song a week for a year and post each one on his website, and he has been at it for many, many weeks. He calls it “Thing a Week.” I very much admire him because he is really going for his life with gusto and consistency. Coulton is also a very talented musician.

A catchy, cool song of his, Code Monkey, started a trend on Youtube about a year ago and is still going strong. Coulton first recorded the funny and touching song about a programmer in a nameless corporation and posted it on his website. Then an IT expert who works for Adobe made an animated video for the song, using images from videogames & put it on Youtube.
It started to draw a crowd, and this girl, Emily, found the song & made a pajama video of it (a pajama video is when someone dances around his/her bedroom in jammies lip-synching/dancing/interpreting a song in front of a webcam.)
Then Coulton gave a concert and found out Emily was in the audience by coi-incidence. He invited her on stage to re-enact her video as he played Code MOnkey. Anotherfan at the concert, filmed this and posted it on Youtube.

Now, I know there is a lot of pooh on the Internet in general, and Youtube in particular, but this is worth checking out.

Check it out in this order:

Original song + video made by “Spiffworld,” a fan who works at Adobe and spent lots of time animating a cool video for the song.

thh Emily’s pajama video of Code Monkey.

Emily performing her dance live at a Jonathan Coulton Concert in Chicago on December 8th.


I highly recommend that you check out Coulton’s website to hear more great tunes, like Tom Cruise Crazy, You ruined Everything, to hear more great music by Coulton.

Jonathan Coulton had a dream to make music & share it with people. He did not wait until his life circumstances showed up as "perfect." Instead he made a commitment to himself & his desire to create and he kept it. That's Transformation. He made no excuses. And he did it all while being a new Dad! Now I'm sure Coulton had lots of legitimate reasons to skip a week or two, but he chose not to take them and he kept his word.
And along the way, he created something wonderful and has become an inspiration for so many others. That's Transformation too.