Wednesday afternoon, along the narrow winding water streets of Venice, my Gondolier, Paulo, taught me first hand how to simplify my life an my thoughts.
A Venetian native, hailing from a 400-year old Gondola heritage, Paulo is one of the 500 Gondoliers servicing the tourists that flock to his city daily. He works long days, dabbles in the essentials of many languages and spends almost the entirety of his day under the beating sun or in a Gondola traffic jam.
Mid-way through our time with him, I turned around to ask him about his life. Upon answering my question of what he most liked about his job, he answered: “this-a moment.”
Paulo knows life. The simplicity of his answer speaks volumes to his ability to enjoy the presence of a moment. With still of full day of demanding tourists and work awaiting him, his focus was with us, not them, enjoying with us as we savored every second of beauty we could along the Venetian waterways.
Is “this-a moment” the best moment of your day, every day? If it’s not, think on Paulo’s profound example. His quiet serenity of spirit will always remind me to stop thinking ahead or behind and to simply just BE and ENJOY.
