Enjoy yourself while you're still in the pink

 

 Point to Ponder: Enjoy yourself while you're still in the pink. Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself It's later than you think.

Story Line: About 13 years ago, a vintage corvette pulled in the front of our home. A tall (6’2”) man with large shoulders slowly came out of the car and rang our doorbell. In a very soft and polite voice (totally disproportionate to his size), he introduced himself and informed us that he was told by our friend that we needed someone to keep our garden green. And thus began 10 years long wonderful association until he retired and returned home to American Samoa/Samoa in 2015.

I will be dishonest if I tell you that my reason for telecommuting on some Wednesdays was purely for the standard benefits of telecommuting. This gentleman had an amazing perspective on life and my wife and I enjoyed listening to his wisdom. Prior to gardening he was in transportation business, and by normal standards doing well. But those long hours and many days away from family took its toll. So one day he decided to leave the hectic life and started gardening business which gave him a lot of satisfaction and peace.

He would work calmly at his own pace. In between work, he will tell us stories of his younger days in Samoa; life by the ocean, daily interaction with friends and family members, fresh food and abundance of nature.  Once he told us about his large extended family reunion (1100+ but only 756 showed up) back home, his beautiful village by the ocean and enjoying life day by day. An hour with him was very therapeutic. (and it helped me work two extra hours a day).

So one day in 2015 when he informed us that he was retiring and returning home because his older brothers had passed away and he had to assume the responsibility of the extended family, we were very sad and also glad. Sad to loose someone who had become a good friend and a part of our life.

Reflection:

But we were also glad that we got to meet such a nice individual who taught us a lot about life and raised our curiosity about Samoa and the rest of Polynesia.

This was one of the main reasons for our recent 23 days trip to five Polynesian places. During this visit we met so many individuals whose perspective on life and indicators of success were similar to the friend who kept our garden green; living a slower pace of life, quality time with family, in harmony with nature, living in the moment. Future Friday Reflections will share stories of: An American man from Oklahoma who has lived in American Samoa for 40 years, a family who left Florida and lives on a small island in Tonga for over 15 years, a domestic airliner pilot in Tonga who gave up a lucrative job overseas to be with his 80 years old parents, a guy who left the glamour of Silicon Valley at 38 years age to return to his parents in Hawaii and many more such cases. Witnessing the life in Polynesia reminded us of: The Way We Were and also of a very memorable song from the past sung by Doris Day. "Enjoy Yourself" is a popular song published in 1949, with music written by Carl Sigman and lyrics by Herb Magidson.

Special Thanks to the reader Millan Trivedi for sending the video of this song.

Comments

[JS]

Always such a good way to start the weekend – pondering life and its nuances. Thank you for sharing, as always

[rjazz]

Beautiful and terribly small cars the same day I sat in the 67’ as I was thinking about restoring one, I climbed into a nice 59… (corvette Mike’s in SO. Cal) they are crazy small… its funny sometimes how the “perception” of awesome is corrected with a dose of reality 

Given their price… I Am kinda glad I didn’t fit 

[CJS]

The people we meet everyday is to teach us the dos and donts in life. It's really amazing.

[FR Penang]

We all have choices... some people call it sacrifice... I have many stories of people going home to take care of their parents...

[Anand]

Answer to a few readers question; Did we meet him afterwards or during our trip?
We looked for him and also had a few locals looking but time ran out in American Samoa. In fact before he went back home, he came to see us but we were traveling and we lost contact because his wife too moved back with him. We are still looking. He was so much a part of our life. A very good gentle man.

[bani]

Thank you Anand
stirred some childhood memories of care free
time in nature

[basant]

Great!
Thanks for the Doris Day song!

[nAn]

Beautiful. Another amazing article that makes one ponder about life and what we are truly working towards. We often time catch ourself forgetting how to truly value life and what defines happiness. I was fortunate to spend time and talk with a good friend who came back to the states yesterday from Bosnia. He explained how the unemployment rate is high, but yet there’s no homelessness. His reason is that the people take care of one another. They learned of how important it is to take care of one another and the strength in family, due to the war that they went through, not too long ago. History and values provide the strength to understand and appreciate happiness in learning to unite.

[MS]

Always thanks for your valuable message and advice with wisdom. I think about that way of life with my family after retire, too.