Update Yourself

Today is 08.08.08. It is Sara’s birthday. Thank you for being here.

This is a good day for a UY celebration. What’s a UY celebration? UY stands for Update Yourself. I feel like updating myself today. The beauty of a UY celebration is that you can choose to have it any day of the year. It doesn’t have to be a national holiday. You can make it your national or family holiday, or if you want, you can make it your own personal holiday.

Today I feel like having a UY celebration. Not because the Beijing Olympics begins today but because it’s a good day. What do I do on my UY Celebration day? I take time to relax. Take in a deep breath. Let go of worry. Say thank you for having special people in my life. Appreciate the beauty around me. Marvel at the miraculous nature of life. Smile. Laugh. Live in the moment. Appreciate what’s been made possible. Appreciate great teachers that have blessed this world. Appreciate great teachers that have blessed me.

Update Yourself Day is a day to give yourself a new permission. Permission to be new. To let go of what did not work yesterday and to be ready and open to new ideas and opportunities today. Every day begins fresh. You can start fresh too. UY day is a day to ask new questions. To embrace the innocence of hope. To know that all is well. That the only ‘perfect’ is what is; that ‘should’ is a chimera of the mind.

Life is too short and too precious for ‘shoulds’. Too precious to give up on being new. Too precious to worry about the good opinion of others. Too precious to give up loving and laughing.

UY day is a day to dare. To dare to be true. ‘Truth can hurt but it sets us free’. To dare to step in the place of naked truth. To step into the place of communion. To enjoy the complete mandate of being alive and being given the power to choose. Something mighty wants you and me to have a full run. To not be lesser than our fullest. Yes, this is Update Yourself Day.

Will you give yourself a UY day?

© Aviv Shahar