Life is beautiful – Everything

For Moan, Not and the peacock, a tale of magical heroes

It’s about nine years ago that I worked with a colleague at a social security company, I call him “Not”.
Not was forty eight years old, divorced, paid a hell of alimony each month; for his wife, who was unofficial in a new relation. His new relationship was not all very stable, his son had took issues out of the divorce and his job was new and uncertain. His life sucked and at that moment he had one certainty, at the end he would die. The question was, how quickly?

Every morning Not came at work with the black, Gallows humor, cynical and demotivating look in his eyes, voice and being. Deception was dripping all down of him. Every morning he was closer to his destiny, his destination. What did he do to deserve this?

Not was sitting at the same block, in the same team.
We, the block, started with humor, playing the joke on Not, firing his misery back on him….Laughing….
And Not, Not grinned too, with us, with a phony laugh. Recognizing his disaster, facing it…. Dealing with it…. Suddenly, slowly we discovered a small sparkle, of something, joy, was it hope?

One day we forced Not to begin the day with saying up loud, quoting: “life is beautiful….”.
Why? At least to have fun, seeing him struggle, watching the inner fight. But as well, to have him – and us, looking forward to this daily entertainment, the beginning of a wonderful being together. We listened, shared moments, cheered and filled the morning with laughter.

We, and Not repeated this, every morning…., for years. And we laughed, Not making the jokes on himself…..
While doing this we had fun, challenged ourselves, with stupid funny stuff, stretching boundaries, personal, of the world, every day. Imagine, doing a contest of licking the window 😉

Slowly this daily ritual provided joy, fun, energy and life!
We framed every morning with welcoming the day, joy and a way to move on….

One day something magical happened, “guys, Life is beautiful…….. because”….., there was a reason
We saw a change, slowly the mind had evaluated and created a different perception.. we all looked forward to our daily ritual, with Not…
From that moment, the vibe was different…… more and more happy stories were told and Not his world was changing….. “I love you, like men that can do.”, I even might have heard.
I am writing this with a smile on my face, with pride, with blessing.

The magnificent wonder was to see, the final step; Not, telling, promoting, convincing, broadcasting other people how beautiful life was, so gentle and genuine, full of awareness and consciousness…. In his special way, with that youthful smile on his face.
A smile of true, honest and pure believe about the good things, and happiness in life…

Even after the tragically death of one of our team member, Moan, we kept laughing and joking.
I can recall the last moments with Moan, in a nursery hostile, the three of us, sitting at the bed and in our last moments we laughed about life, mocking and making fun….
Not, spoke the final words at the funeral, bravely. And every year ever since I receive a message when Not has visited the memorial.

Last October I received a letter:

Dear Robin,

How is life? Long time no see.
Still roaming the globe, having great adventures and joy?

With me things are beautiful, still.
I am in a new relation with lots of wonderful time together. At this moment we are finding out how best live together, fitting “US” into our lives.
But the future is smiling upon us.

At the office things are ok, not challenging, but just ok. No new or exciting challenges.
BUT, from March on I have a “sabbatical” for eight months!
Mid-March I fly with my son to Nepal to start a hiking adventure, together. Furthermore there are some other trips with my girlfriend on the radar.
For now, I am happy. If you have time to meet up soon to have a bite, let me know. Life is beautiful!

Yours, (forever) your buddy,
Nothing
 

Tomorrow I have a dinner date with Nothing,- from now on “Everything”, I am excited and looking forward.

~ Life is beautiful, make everything out of it ~