The Greatest Speech Ever Made

Indeed, the greatest speech ever made, not by a politician, but by a comedian, and one of the best we've had.

It's amazing, yet sad, that the message is still so valid and modern, we can easily relate to it, it is so true and current.

I hope there will come a day when all of this is behind us, and this incredible speech is no longer valid.

Until the next!

When the grass is greener on the other side...

Greetings my dear friends, visitors and residents of The Light Planet! I hope you are all well in every possible level.


Recently on a trip to Paris, in the middle of a friends reunion, everyone was asking me how things are going here in Los Angeles, and how life is in general. They all seemed fascinated with the idea of the American Dream and the life in this side of the world. During a brief moment of silence most of them stood looking up as if to some invisible point on the horizon, yearning to be in L.A. and one of them broke the silence with a toast to Los Angeles, to which we all joined.

As this unfolded in front of my eyes, I sensed a bit of irony seeing how all this Parisians who, live and experience on a daily basis one of the most beautiful cities in the world, were yearning to be in Los Angeles. I instantly remembered having experienced the exact same reaction when I told my friends in Los Angeles that I was traveling to Paris; they were all yearning to be in Paris.

Right after this, I suddenly felt conscious of the phrase: “The grass is always greener on the other side”.

I found myself witnessing a perfect example of such phrase.
Those who are here yearn to be there, those who are there yearn to be here. And so we are constantly yearning to be "on the other side", having all that which we don’t have and so we forget to touch base with all that which we do have but start taking for granted.

When we are not able to appreciate what we have, we slowly stop seeing all that which is good in our life, we lose perspective and get into the game of looking for validation elsewhere, to be told that “everything is OK” and we feel the need to feed off of external elements that can help us feel that we are indeed “well positioned” in life.

We fail to remember that everything is well in the universe, in its own balance even when we might find it hard to understand and that if we really need to touch base with the essence of the life we’ve created; a simple inventory of the big and small things we can easily identify becomes the fastest reconnection and the only compass we need to put us back in track.

Let’s maintain and walk barefoot over our own grass, let’s appreciate and enjoy it for it’s the only one we have, let’s turn it into the garden of our dreams and then there wont be any garden "on the other side" that we fancy more than our own.

Right & Wrong

Recently a good friend of mine told me what she announced as a horrible deed she had committed, before she told me; she was already warning me that she would never do it again and I could feel how worried and confused she was.

While she was telling me her story, there were moments where she admitted that the whole experience had been enjoyable but she kept on saying she “knew” it was “WRONG”

But according to WHO was this experience WRONG? This reminded me of all the pre-conceptions, judgments and beliefs we carry around, and they are not even ours! We have inherited so much of this baggage from what we have been taught and told. Very few people actually endorse their own beliefs and live according to them because they have decided to do so.

But what happens with the rest? The rest just accepts them and tries to live up to them at the best of their abilities, but isn’t that exactly the kind of pattern, the kind of attitude and conformism that creates the increasingly high rates of unhappiness and depression in the world today?

The experience my friend shared with me, was by far one of the best things that could have happened to her, why? Because for the first time in her entire life, she dared to leave absolutely all of the pre-conceptions, judgments and inherited beliefs she was carrying around and surrendered completely to herself, she embraced self-trust and gave a massive step towards her own growth and evolution. For the first time, her own voice was ‘speaking’ lauder than everyone else’s!

Unfortunately, my poor friend soon enough put back on her backpack full of everything she had just summed the courage to leave behind, even if for a moment. And she felt the heavy weight of the backpack once more, suddenly her recent experience was now looked at through judgment-full eyes and her worse fears came over her. She felt bad, she felt worthless and utterly confused.

Soon she will realize that this experience is something she will remember as the first big leap on the way to hearing her own voice, to finally be herself despite the world.

How heavy is your backpack today?
How much of the contents are truly yours?
Whose voice speaks lauder?
Whose voice are you listening to?

This, being YOUR life, the only life you truly own; shouldn’t it be your own voice the one to lead you?

As far as I am concerned; I am going to let my voice scream out laud so I may never fail to hear it!

Happy by Choice

Today I crossed roads with a tall, thin, smiley man on the street, on my way back home.

The man smiled at me as I looked at him, and said;

- “Hi, how are you?”

- “I am OK..I guess..”, I replied while a flash of my day up until then came to mind; I had totally hated the day, it started bad with some domestic problems, which then increased and irritated me beyond words. Nevertheless, that didn’t take away my manners so I asked;

- “..and yourself?”

- “Good, good, I have had nothing but green lights on my way, and it was a long hot hot day, but it was good, so I am happy” he replied, as we shared the walkway. I said;

- “well that’s good, and all those green traffic lights must be a good sign”, he smiled and mentioned again how hot and long the day seemed and thinking about me in my office, I didn’t really take a break so didn’t notice if it was sunny or not, if it was hot or not, so I asked;

- “what do you do?” and he raised an arm and showed me a shoeshine box he was carrying, it was painted in white and with black letters it said “Happy By Choice”

- “Oh, that’s a nice name”, I said

- “I choose to be Happy” he added as he smiled.

Our little casual conversation continued as we crossed the street and then in the corner we parted ways, not before he said;

- “you should come around and bring me some shoes when you can”, to which I replied:

- “sure, where are you located at?”

- “555 Ocean, at the Big US Bank and Fedex” he said, it was actually right behind us, I said:

- “I know where it is, I’ll see you around then, have a good night”, he said:

- “you have a good night too lady, God bless you”

It does suck when things don’t work exactly as one would want them to, when one would want them to, yet I realized is not enough reason to let that ruin a perfectly good brand new day.
I didn’t even notice the green traffic lights, I forgot to notice the nice fresh breeze that blows here beside the ocean.
I didn’t really pay attention when before leaving the office my colleague said to me; “Well done, you did a good job”.
SO today some things did not work exactly how I wanted them, exactly when I wanted them, SO I became upset and didn’t even take a break, as if I was punishing myself for something that is totally out of my control.

How stupid is that? Why should I feel anything but happy?

This man has reminded me of all those things I know but I sometimes tend to forget.

The day is not over yet, so before it goes I just want to say: I CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY!!!

And, should you happen to pass by 555 Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, you might want to get your shoes shinning.