Five Great Things
Slowing down and being intentional
Hi friends & happy Sunday,
This week, I share with you a few brief observations from my notebook:
1. Slowing Down, Absorbing Excellence
On Saturday, I made another visit to the Metropolian Musem of Art, a real treasure chest of miracles. Many pieces are an artist’s life work, the culmination of years of showing up daily, screwing up, improvising, having patience, and being creative.
Why are museums so popular? Maybe it’s because we are given opportunities to pause, reflect, and soak in artists’ forms of expression. To truly slow down, absorb excellence, and feel awe toward how an artist chose one color over another, or how an artist applies the paint onto the canvas. Art is one of many forms of beauty, like our biology, nature, and laughter.
When I visit a new city, I try to visit a bookshop or library and the primary art museum. These places inspire. In a world that offers its busyness, setting our eyes on gorgeous works of art allows us to creep away from the noise. Absorbing the work fosters patience and a quiet mind.
With a quiet mind, we can move forward a little more clearly.
2. Helper’s High
Many of us have felt “helper’s high” — giving to others produces endorphins in the brain. Positive emotions follow selfless service to others. “Life is for service,” we can remind ourselves: service to our precious selves, the people we love, and those in need with whom we cross paths. When we give, our health improves. Good deeds can relieve stress and help you live longer. They also can make us more grateful for the things we do have. “To be satisfied with what one has; that is wealth,” Mark Twain once wrote. “As long as one sorely needs a certain additional amount, that man isn't rich.”
We can serve others simply out of the goodness of our heart. Then we can enjoy “helper’s high,” and continue to serve repeatedly.
3. Gratitude
For a moment, forget the cliches and buzzwords around gratitude. Gratitude isn’t a one-time thing. Gratitude is a lifelong process of pausing. Gratitude is noticing and appreciating the things that we often take for granted.
Gratitude is fertilizer for the brain. It gives you energy and leaves you feeling better. Gratitude is awakening to all the beauty around you.
If you are reading this, you are blessed. You are breathing, you are literate, you are living — you are fortunate. When things aren’t going well, we can still be grateful for oxygen, “the invisible gift: our purest, sweet necessity,” noted the poet Mary Oliver.
It’s easy to take for granted the safety of our bed, refrigerator, clean drinking water, heat/AC, the food we eat, etc. When we notice this daily abundance in front of us, we can fill our souls with gratitude. Someone will always have “more” than us, but the miracle of being alive another day comes with much to cherish.
A few studies have pointed out that our outlook on life improves when we take 5-10 seconds each day to jot down what we’re grateful for. People who write daily about gratitude exercise more and require medical attention less often than those who focus on sources of aggravation, or what they don’t have.
Gratitude is medicine to heal.
4. A Chinese Fable: “Maybe”
An old Chinese farmer lived in a country village, and he and his son worked the fields with their old horse.
One day the horse ran away to the hills, and the village people came to the old man to offer sympathy. They said, “It is such an unlucky thing that your horse has run off.” The old man replied, “Maybe.”
A week later, the old man’s horse returned and brought several wild stallions. All the people from the village came to the old man, saying, “It is such a lucky thing.” The old man replied, “Maybe.”
The next day, the old man’s son tried to tame one of the wild horses, and was thrown and broke his leg. Again the villagers came, “What an unlucky thing.” The old man again replied, “Maybe.”
Three days later, army officials came to conscribe the village's young men into military service. Seeing the son’s broken leg, he was the only youth not drafted. The villagers came once again, “What a lucky thing.”
The old man just replied, “Maybe.”
Sometimes, we don’t need to judge anything that happens to us.
Engaged!
As you might have seen, Ally and I got engaged in Italy to kick off the year:
Spanish Steps, Rome, Italy, January 12, at about 10:30 a.m. local time 
Photoshoot in Florence 
A group of Italian students, and tourists, caught the moment
Two final notes:
After shopping, people who always return their carts to the receptacle regardless of how far away they've parked or what the weather is like know what doing the right thing looks like!
Observant, kind people notice when someone is interrupted in conversation and say, “What were you saying?”
Parting thought: The last line of a Mary Oliver poem: “Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.”
Celebrate your gifts,
Matthew
P.S. — Thank you for reading and trusting me with these words, a privilege I don’t take lightly. If Inner Peace has helped you in some way, please consider forwarding this email to someone you care about.
Congratulations on the engagement!
Thank you !