Recently I was at a conference. Heroically, I felt, I got up very early and went to the gym in the hotel and worked out before the meeting started. Before returning to my room, I stopped in the coffee shop in the hotel to pick up a cup of coffee. A lovely young woman waited on me. She was bright and cheerful and very helpful. She noticed the Sign of Enough tattoo on my forearm, and asked me what the design stood for. I explained about the Sign of Enough and the key question “How will I know when I have enough?” Her eyes widened, and she just sparkled and said “Oh! But my LIFE is enough!!!” She went on to say how she tells her friends to just wake up in the morning and decide to be happy. She said “If I let myself, I can feel huge anger about my childhood. . .but why would I live that way?” Her name is Julie, and she is wise way beyond her years. I had the sense that she isn’t denying or repressing what apparently was a difficult childhood, but rather making the decision not to bring it forward into the rest of her life. We introduced ourselves, and I told her how glad I was that I’d met her. . .and deeply meant it. I went in the next morning at about the same time, hoping to see Julie again, but someone else was behind the take-out counter, someone who did not wake up that morning and decide to be happy.
Julie changed my day. . .and several days thereafter. . .maybe in some small way forever. If you knew your life is enough, what would change for you? For Julie I think the answer is “everything!”
