Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Magic of Dayenu: It Would Have Been Enough

I'm not active in my Jewish religious practice, but when I was growing up we celebrated Passover, and one aspect of that ritual that has stuck with me is the word Dayenu. Roughly translated, Dayenu means "it would have been enough" or "it would have sufficed."

Earlier in my life, I had no idea what it meant but the thought that something "would have been enough" intrigued me. Now I understand that the magic and meaning of Dayenu is really about the art of happiness, which is made especially clear in today's world.

The Magic of Dayenu
Does it strike you as odd, as you move through the world today, that people seem to be split into two different camps? There are the moaner/groaners who have been hit hard by current economic times (or Mercury Retrograde or their in-laws, whatever!) and are complaining about their situation. Then there are the oddly happy people, many of whom have also been hit hard by the economy, but are having a ball. So what's going on here?

What's going on here is that the people who are oddly happy are practicing the art of Dayenu. They look around at their world and say, "This is enough. This is good. We are happy." Or, to take Dayenu one step further, they say, "Not only is this enough, but the step before this would have been enough." Dayenu specifically says, "It would have been enough," not "it is enough."

So the truly happy people who practice Dayenu look at their lives and accomplishments and say, "It would have been enough, and we can be happy, even if we did not get as far as we are now ... even if we had stopped at the achievement or happy moment before this one." Make sense? If not, here's a great example to make it a little clearer.

An Example of the Magic of Dayenu in Action
I have two friends who continually amaze me-they are married, so maybe that has something to do with why they are so happy. Both were hit last year with acute and chronic physical problems, which not only caused them a lot of pain, but also prevented them from doing a lot of work and earning the same income they usually do. This year, they recovered somewhat from their physical problems, although they still had many doctor visits and healthcare bills. But they are incredibly, oddly, amazingly happy.

I ask them, "What makes you so happy? So much has happened to you."

They reply, "Yes, it has ... good, bad, ugly, and back to good. Look at where we live. It's a chunk of Heaven! That's enough. Just having this place to live is enough."

Explaining further, they tell me that their physical problems have forced them to have down time, which they would never normally take. They have spent this time with their horses, enjoying their land, and NOT working. They used to live in a big city and had to pay big bucks to relax with the help of massages and therapists, and so on. Now, living in the country, they can relax for free. If they had nothing else but this land, they said, it would have been enough.

Do they have physical pain? Yes. Have they had to cut back on expenses? Yes. Do they still have bad days? Of course.

But overall, they are living in the magic of Dayenu. On balance, they look for the happiness that comes from acceptance of current conditions, and appreciation of all that has come before that. They understand that even if nothing more good occurs in their life, all that has been in their life thus far "would have been enough."

But of course, we students of the Law of Attraction, know that this will never happen. The beauty of Dayenu is that by living in appreciation of all that was good that has come before now, we always attract more good in our future. Bumps in the road notwithstanding, appreciation of the past and acceptance of the present always (always!) leads to future good. It can be no other way.

Magic is a precision science and it follows the laws of the Universe without fail. Live in the magic of Dayenu today ... and see the magic of tomorrow unfold before you.

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Photo credit: Free Digital Photos

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