If you work with me, you also know this fact about me, because you hear it what must seem like daily on my office Pandora station.
I love the music of Jason Mraz. I love it with my whole heart.
I can't pinpoint the exact reason for why his music speaks to me on such a mind blowing scale, it just does. His music has a spirit of joy, adventure, contentment and, well, sunshine that is absolutely contagious to me. I think if I could live in the songwriting style of any performing artist, I would live in the crux of Jason Mraz's inspiration. There's laughter, wordplay, sarcasm, wisdom, God, stars, rainstorms, sweet lovin's, beautiful ocean waves, a lack of hesitation, an abundance of happiness, co-dependence on real people, and a thirst for living in the moment.
I want all of these things in the everyday routine of my life.
I want to live my life like it's a Jason Mraz melody. What does that look like?
How do I make that happen? Where do I start?
Well lovers, allow me to expand.
It looks like a manifesto; a manifesto that I started working on tonight, amidst piles of forgotten memories and favorite books as I took a little trip down memory lane, through my library, and compiled a list of near-and-dears to my heart; a collection of contented sighs and quiet wishes that I can actively participate in every single day.
Yes, for the past two hours, I've been sitting on my bed, after a thorough gutting of my most hallowed literary library. I pulled out every book that has monumentally altered my personhood, and threw them all over my bed, pages falling open and underlinings popcorning out at me from between chapters. I picked each one up, felt it in my hands, opened up to a random page and let time take its natural course through a reliving of the relationship I once had with the exact book between my fingers.
All the while, I listened to "Love Is A Four Letter Word" and realized the album in question seems to have been written precisely for this exact role, to become my bold, red-letter undertaking.
Particularly, this song.
In fact, "Living in the Moment" has become the title track to this little project, nestled lovingly in my black moleskine notebook. I even took the liberty of putting into practice one of life's newest old lessons that I'm learning this year: I wrote the entire thing in pencil, in place of ink.
So below, my dears, I'm going to share with you my goals for the upcoming future.
Keep in mind that there are many things I want out of life which I have chosen to exclude from this list, because this little beauty is not all-inclusive. It's rather exclusive, actually. Mostly because it's themed to a particular man's particular style of musical creativity.
Themes are good, though, every now and then- particularly when they're strong enough to stand alone.
So here you go: The Jason Mraz Manifesto, inspired by the album: Love Is A Four Letter Word.
- Before reading further, I must place the direct lyrics which started this project here. Taken from the song, "Living in the Moment."
And if I fall asleep, I know you'll be the one
Who'll always remind me to live in the moment.
To live my life easy and breezy with peace in my mind
Peace in my heart, peace in my soul
Wherever I'm going, I'm already home.
- I will eat more lettuces, french beans, and radishes, but I will not steal them as little Peter Rabbit did, stealing his vegetables from the fearsome Mr. McGregor's garden.
- I will remember the lesson Dr. Seuss taught me when I was very young: every day is a great day for Up.
- I will spend more time admiring the stars and learning the names of the constellations, like I did as a little girl.
- Peter Pan's last words to Wendy were, "Just always be waiting for me, and then some night you will hear me crowing." - I will practice Wendy's patience, and I will always be waiting to hear the sound of your rooster crow one last time.
- "Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways who was driven
far journeys, after he had sacked Troy's sacred citadel.
Many were they whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned of,
Many the pains he suffered in his spirit on the wide sea." - Opening of Homer's Odyssey. I will strive to remember these words as often as I can, so that I, too, may be a person of "many ways." - I will try to help people often. And in these acts of service to other human beings, I will remember Annie Dillard's words as a beacon to always practice kindness and gentleness, "Cruelty is a mystery, and the waste of pain." (from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.)
- I will find my Walden. I will live deliberately. (I must take this moment to bless Henry David Thoreau for writing one of the most important books I have ever read.)
- I will continue my love affair with Holden Caulfield.
- I will capture my own castle. ( I will also share this Dodie Smith masterpiece with another living soul, so they, too, can capture their own castle.)
- I'll work really friggin' hard for a shot at a Silver Lining. (Excelsior!)
- To rekindle in my heart the aggressive, compassionate drive that Annie Sullivan possessed, to channel the deep love that she felt for Helen Keller, "To know with one word, and I can put the world in your hand!" - This will be my future, to work a miracle in someone else's life.
- To pray every single night that I will grow a heart as big as Mamma T's.
"God has created us so we do small things with great love. I believe in that great love, that comes, or should come, from our heart, should start at home with my family, my neighbors across the street, these right next door. And this love should then reach everyone." -Mother Theresa. - I will continually re-read my battleworn copy of Passion and Purity, and take sweet Elisabeth Elliott's word to heart about falling in love with a man who's future belongs solely to the work of God. "The things that we feel most deeply we ought to learn to be silent about, at least until we have talked them over thoroughly with God."
- I'll actually read that cheesy marriage book I got at a white elephant Christmas party two years ago, instead of gripe about its very existence. (Funny memory, at that same white elephant party, I also won a kneeboard.)
- Every damn day: "Smile, Liz, from your liver" will be my mantra. Thanks, Ketut. (From Eat, Pray, Love.)
- "As I once became part of them, all these creatures of the sea are now a part of me, in my mind, in my soul, in my dreams." -Chris Newbert. I feel this speaks for itself.
- Researching ancient shark folklore will be a "happy soul" past-time.
- I'm going to spend some of my tax return on supporting my favorite photographer, because his work captures all of the joy in my heart. (Shout out to Chris Burkard and his California Surf Project, which has been lovingly tucked under my arm and close to my heart for almost three years now. Below is just a fleeting example of his soul-wrenching gift.)
- I will study long and hard how to attain a spirit as elegant as the spirit which belongs to the lovely Audrey Hepburn.
- I will love my puppy.
- I will pray for the soul of the little boy my family is now sponsoring in Ethiopia, and I will write him letters and send him cards with candy inside of them.
- "One day you'll find that I have gone, for tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun", will be the new song of my heart. Thanks, John, Paul, George and Ringo.
- I will follow more writing prompts. (Now accepting applications!)
- In closing, I'll try to remember daily a few of Albus Dumbledore's precious words on love:
"To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin." I will remember this on days when I need to recall that Christ's self-sacrificial heart, and the beloved books of my youth, are all of the same genre. For which, I am eternally thankful.
So there you have it, friends, lovers, dears. This is my Jason Mraz Manifesto.
Cheers to pursuing peace, and finding it in the most beloved corners of your daily life.
May the absolute sweetest dreams find their way to you, tonight!
All my love,
Hannah
