Building Relationships, Commitment, and Love - Starting With H

We continue our series on how to build interpersonal relationships, whether with family, coworkers, friends, or that special someone. Commitment and love are important to all of us; they are worth fighting for; they are worth working for. You also should know that in spite of many promises there is no secret for success, no checklist of things to do, and just as importantly no checklist of things not to do. But we do have suggestions, now continuing with the letter H. The focus is on happy, harmony, and hurdle.

H is for happy. Did you ever notice how happy people seem to draw others to them? Look on the bright side; it’s infectious. And don’t tell the joke:

"Cheer up, things could be worse."
"So he cheered up, and things got worse."

No politics for me but the song "Happy Days Are Here Again" helped the Democratic Party elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the heart of the Great Depression. This song is actually #47 on the Recording Industry Association of America’s list of Songs of the Century. Number #1 is Judy Garland singing Over The Rainbow, not exactly a song dedicated to sadness. In the interest of full disclosure, The Righteous Brothers’ "You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin" at number 9 beats out "Happy Days Are Here Again" by a wide, wide margin. You know what I say to that; Don’t worry, be happy.

H is for harmony. Believe me, I had no plans to discuss harmony right after listing some great records of previous decades, or as they used to say: Blasts from the past. Be harmonious. Help make things happen. Don’t work at cross-purposes. Of course there will be times when you have to stand up for your opinion, to sing solo. Some would say this works best if you can get everyone else in the choir to shut up. But that’s not the harmonious way to make it happen.

H is for hurdle. Hurdles are good for you. If you can zoom along the track of life leaping over hurdle after hurdle, stumbling but not falling, or falling but not stopping, or even stopping but not quitting, just think how well that you can perform on the hurdle-less stretches. A toddler whose parent always places him on the toilet well before any chance of an accident will have a bladder that grows more slowly than one who has an occasional miscue. Just think of that the next time you’re washing the floor.