A tune came on the radio, and, bang, just like that, I was back in Kansas City in the 60's. Driving to work on a cold rainy day in February. 5 AM - going to open the labor office for temp day laborers that was part of my Manpower Inc branch. Not looking forward to it. Life hadn't been very good for a while. My wife had been sick for a long time - in and out of hospitals. The Manpower Inc branch was stuck in low gear. I was opening the labor office because the third manager I had hired in the last year hadn't worked out - so there I was - looking forward to another 14 hour work day followed by making dinner, getting our little girls to bed, doing the laundry ---.
Then this tune came on the radio - Ray Stevens singing "Everything Is Beautiful, In Its Own Way." And suddenly everything looked a little bit brighter - a little bit more optimistic - a little more hope in my life. I can remember it as if it were yesterday. I smiled and felt a real surge of positiveness and energy and those words - "Everything is beautiful in its own way", became a sort of mantra for me. From then on, when things got tough - or tougher - I would think of that song and it helped me endure, survive, hang in there and celebrate life. Those words reminded me that there is beauty in everyone and everything - and to look for it. Wow!!
Life got better. My wife got better, our girls grew up and are beautiful, successful women with families of their own. But that special song remains as powerful a message to me now as it was then. It always will. Thanks, Ray Stevens - for your particular genius.
Do you ever notice how a song you haven't heard for years, can, as soon as you hear the first few notes, take you to a place, and have you singing the lyrics as if it were just yesterday when it was popular? I marvel at our ability to keep those special tunes in special places and bring them out with the tiniest of promptings. To me that speaks to the power of music, but more to our own power - our power to take a message, accept it, make it our own, and have it with us the rest of our lives.
I keep looking for those messages of optimism and hope, and those messages that take me back and remind me how far I've come in life. I hope you do that too. Life's a journey - so many little experiences that can have huge possibilities for us - listen for them.
Written by Andy Cox, President
Cox Consulting Group LLC, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: www.coxconsultgroup.com
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