My husband and I went to Ravinia this week to see Santana. For those of you who don’t live in Chicago, Ravinia is an outdoor music venue with a small pavilion and very large grounds that can accomodate 20,000 people. The thing that makes this different from other outside venues is that you can bring in your own food and drink. You see people setting up tables and chairs ranging from elaborate with candelabras to simple as in our case with food from a cooler and a grocery bag(less to carry out after the show). The venue creates a sense of community and it is great for people watching! I saw babies in strollers and people in their late 70’s. And, they were all there for one thing – Santana.
As John and I sat eating our bread, cheese, fruit and chocolate (all of the important food groups) and sipping our wine we talked about the first time we had seen Santana. It was 40 years ago while we were still students at the University of Wisconsin. Then, I had long blond hair and bell bottoms. Now I have short brown hair liberally streaked with gray and purple glasses. Santana actually looks very much the same, except now he wears a hat. The picture at the right was taken at a picnic in 1972 – yikes!
During the show I chuckled because the people sitting near us probably saw Santana for the first time 40 years ago, too. Other than we have more gray in our hair and a few more wrinkles you wouldn’t have known our age – we all danced just as enthusiastically as we had in the past. And, Santana played with as much energy – it is always a full out show and it seems that every member of his band is fully present. Such a joy to experience, which brings me to the “wisdom” portion of the blog.
At the start of the show he said, “It is your choice to make every day the best day of your life.” He ended the show with the same statement and it has stuck with me. Sometimes we forget that we do have a choice about how our day will be. I’m not suggesting that we don’t have difficult times, and yet how often do we let the daily annoyances trip us up and define how we feel? What if we started each day with the question, “How could I make this day the best day of my life?” And if that question is too daunting, how about this, “How could I make this day better than yesterday? What one thing could I do or think that would make a difference?”
Santana and his band members ended the show by harmonizing the words – peace and happiness. It was so interesting because not only did it sound beautiful, but it also added the dimension of the harmony of living in peace and happiness. How could you create more harmony in your life? What one thing could you do today to increase your happiness? It might be a tiny thing – and that counts. Each little thing that we do to increase our happiness or our sense of peace builds on the previous and all of a sudden we have momentum for creating the life we truly want to live.
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