Gift of an Unexpected Hour

If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine…Paulo Coelho

At Yale, the most popular class is on happiness. Read about it here. It’s taught by Laurie Santos, and, while the topic speaks to all of us, it’s interesting that at Yale, filled with elite students, happiness seems to be in short supply. The stresses of achievement, status, social media, and hard work make happiness an even rarer commodity that you would expect among such privileged people. The class focuses less on theory and more on application than many classes at Yale. What do you do to be happy? What does history, and its long line of philosophers, poets, and spiritual leaders, have to tell us?

Apparently in one class session she talks about how we spend our time as a function of how happy we are. And then proceeds to give the students the class off, with the admonition that they use the hour not simply to catch up or look at their phones, but to do something that brings happiness. The unexpected hour. It’s a lesson in mindfulness, in joy, and in stepping outside the usual. If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine.

And thus the inspiration for this song. It’s also for my sister Anna, who works very hard in a large system. She does an amazing job as an advocate and leader. At the same, the demands are constant, and she talked with me one day unknowingly about this very topic.

Find happiness. Eat Poems. Drink Love. Breathe Peace. Give Thanks. Let Go.

And look for the unexpected hour. And make more of them.

Gift of an Hour.

When the meeting broke up early for once
Kerri didn’t know what to do.
Back at her desk
She could work right through lunch.
her calendar open til two.
In a fit of inspiration or a stroke of luck
Something that was frozen came unstuck.

She could take a long walk alone
call her grandma on the phone.
Sit on a stone beneath the lilac flowers.
This is how freedom tastes
She doesn’t want to waste
The gift of an unexpected hour.
She’ll take the gift of an hour.

She had a list of things that she should do
Right now they could be ignored.
Shut down her screen. Changed her shoes
And marked herself out on the board.
The morning opened when she hit the street.
A world of possibility at her feet.

Drink a cup of ginger tea
Read Rumi’s poetry
Walk by the stormy sea and feel its power.
This is how living tastes
She doesn’t want to waste
The gift of an unexpected hour.
Oh the gift of an hour

Don’t wait to begin it.
Grab life by the minute.

Her mother called, said she should get home quick
So Kerri caught the very next flight.
Her father taken desperately sick
Not sure if he would last through the night.
Kerri was racing the hourglass sands
But she spent his final minutes.
Holding her hand
Take a breath. Be still.
Watch the birds on the window sill
Listen to the church bells ringingin the tower.

This is how loving tastes
She doesn’t want to waste.
The gift of an unexpected hour.
She’ll take the gift of an hour.

Sit in a church and pray
Talk to strangers in cafes.
Walk slowly on the street.
Buy someone a meal to eat.

Find pictures in the clouds
Look at faces in a crowd