Not Sure About The Key to Happiness. But, Here's the Password to My Laptop?
At least a dozen times a day, my computer starts up and loads my homepage. Each time, I stare at a spinning series of white pixels. I’m always lost in thought about...something. Clearly it’s not as effective as staring into a meditative koi fish pond.
But can it be?
While starting up, my laptop tells me to “Please Wait a Moment”. The word “moment” comes from the Latin word “momentum, ” meaning an increment of time used in the past, lasting approximately 90 seconds. That gives us 960 moments in a day. We choose how we spend most of our moments. Be it studying or working or going to the gym or napping or looking up on exes on Facebook - it’s time we consciously delegate to whatever we deem important.
We don’t really choose to “wait a moment” while our laptops turn on. It’s the same level of choice you have when you hear “Please hand over your license and registration number,” "Agree to Terms and Conditions," or "Hey, can you help me move next weekend?" Unless you've got a scheme to leave the country and change your name at your disposal, we both know you're spending next Sunday grunting as you shove an IKEA couch up the stairs of a fourth floor walkup.
So, we have to spend a dozen moments staring into our screens. Not into koi ponds. No choice about it.
Ask any kindergartener his opinion of naptime, and you’ll know most of of us hate being told what to do.
But, maybe we can use the moments we’re stuck waiting for something to start up to choose to be grateful.
***
I have a lot to be grateful for, including a working spacebar. Once, I had to spend a summer using a laptop without one.After four weeks of having to nearly punch my keyboard to differentiate between "Sarah's Hits" and "Sarah Shits,"... yeah, spacebars are quite nice. I'll add them into the usual gratitude rundown: Family, Friends, New socks, my apartment, coffee shops with easy-to-guess wifi passwords, my health, that pretty flower growing in a sidewalk crack that I pass on my way to the subway. And spacebars.
Mashaswipedhermetrocard. Mashawastired. Mashashouldhavepaidattention. Ifeelasleep. Igotattacked, Igotrapedbyagangonatrain. Ialmostdied. Icouldntsleep. Icouldnteat. Icouldntrememberalot. Myhealthwasdestroyed. Iwashospitalizedforayear. I’m healthy now. I survived it. I can eat again. I can love again. I can hug again. I can write. I have a new laptop with a spacebar.
***
You don’t need a spacebar to tape a password.
We all have to type in passwords, then “wait a moment”, please.
What if our passwords spurred us to use those moments to take a moment of gratitude?
Ilovemymom45!
Lifeisbeautiful68
IcanmakemydreamsrealWe get 960 moments a day.
Be it 2 AM or 2 PM, I'm equally unsurprised to get a notification that someone I know posted something about cats, Trump, or Being Tired on Facebook. That shows that I’m not alone in turning my laptop on more times I’m proud of every day.
That’s a lot of moments spent waiting, please.
If I type in ”Familyisincredible!” every two hours, that’s a lot of moments of me secretly grinning as I think of how much I love my parents’ smiles.
Type in “Luckytob3aliv3”, and that’s a lot of moments I will spend. as my screen loads, touching my wrist, grateful that there is no longer a hospital ID band around it.
Type in “Naturegivesgreatgifts2me,” and that’s a lot of moments to remember to peek out the window of your cubicle and appreciate how pretty the sky really is today.
Please wait a moment to let that load into your mind.
We can’t choose how we spend all 960 of our moments, but we can choose not to waste any of them. I choose to remember to do something no fancy daily gratitude journal could make me do. And I tried – I bought the pretty handmade Ethiopian notebooks and everything.
It would probably take me a good 45 “moments” to build a soapbox – I never took Home Ec. in high school. But I’d use those moments to get a chance to say that… I’ve looked into a lot of meditative koi ponds: I’ve even dropped my keys into one. I’ve done many “spiritual” things, expecting Happiness to hit me like a Fed Ex truck.
I had to reach in to that meditation pond to try to fish my keys out. In addition to my apartment keys, I didn’t pull out the key to happiness.
I did, however had a key realization- I’ll step onto my teetering handmade soapbox now.
Those Who are Grateful will be Given Things to be Grateful For.
A year ago, I changed my first password, to my laptop, to GRATEFULTOB3ALIV3.
(Now that you know it, I guess my folder with THOSE pictures from middle school isn't safe anymore.) Good to know.
Since then, taking a dozen moments of gratitude for life each day has only given me more ideas for every password I maintain.
I, like most people, have too many apps and too many accounts - You don't need a license to have a baby, but apparently I need to make an account to confirm that I did, indeed, buy my tenth Large Coffee in this shop in a week. Sometimes, I can’t hold myself accountable to say “Thank You.” But, even more so, I have too many things I’ve realized I’m grateful for.
Mymomisbeautiful65!
Icangotocollege
L00katthesky2dayThe notebook in which I keep all my passwords now resembles a gratitude notebook. And I won’t be abandoning it after three days.
***
We all have to “Wait for Windows to Start”
But you don’t have to wait to use a window of opportunity to be grateful for a moment. And those dozen of moments will only multiply. It’s a funny little trick.
We all have to wait for our screens to load. We don’t have to wait for our lives to load.
That’s something to be grateful for.
I’ve been through a lot. I'm fortunate enough to have started college. I've run into a skunk while jogging late in the evening. I've spent.. too much time in critical care in a hospital. I've suffered through a whole freaking container of crappy instant espresso when my machine broke. I’ve reached in to fish my keys out of a meditative pond.
I didn’t pull out the key to happiness, but I did find a way to make my loading laptop screen meditative.
I’ve been through a lot of passwords.
“Pa55word1234” and “letmein” have both been used. I’ve tried every way I know to insert “special characters” into my name.
Now, I use "Mymomisbeautiful65!' - My life is already full of Special Characters.
Now, I’m reminded of it every time I open my Macbook Air. I haven’t found the key to happiness, but I did find the password for gratitude.
