Cuisse de Grenouilles: The Secret to Health, Life, Joy, and Potential

You know you are living a good life when a dish of green water and tadpoles fills your proverbial cup and brings “big joy” to your day.

Yes, you read it right. I didn’t say a big box of new Lilly Pulitzer clothes filled my cup and brought me big joy. I said green water and tadpoles. And yes, they simply made my day. 

Turns out that these odd looking creatures living in smelly green water are oddly precious and awkwardly inspirational. Let me explain how nature has a divine way of illustrating the power of health, happiness, and life itself.

My little commune of tadpoles is joyful, full of energy, content in their process, and eager to experience life. They are feeding their bodies each day in order to become a better version of themselves tomorrow, and they accept that they are not perfect in the eyes of others. They are focusing on potential and making progress. They are most certainly odd looking as their tiny legs start budding, but they view this milestone as sheer success. They know that life itself if a gift and that it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In my opinion, the tadpoles are crushing it at life.

Human beings, on the other hand, have a head that is 8 pounds and a brain that is about 3 pounds (if my middle-aged memory of Jerry McGuire serves me right). All that gray matter seems like a great asset to us, but yet …. The gift of intelligence and complex thinking doesn’t necessitate a quality joyful life. Much of the grey matter is, for all intents and purposes, waste. Our brains are useful but often get in the way of simple, happy living.

We know life can sometimes be hard to swallow. 

1. Businesses have struggled more than ever this year.
2. People have faced more financial stressors this year.
3. Loneliness has become more common in this high-virtual world.
4. Stress has caused more health and wellness issues.
5. Health threats loom around the world.
6. The world at large is riddled with complex and systemic social, economic, and political issues that we can’t figure out how to solve for.

Our brains are only so good at what they can do. My message today is: Just get back to basics.

We don’t have to solve for all that ails us personally or professionally. We don’t have to get back to what we were. We don’t have to ‘arrive’ somewhere to be ‘better’ than we are now. We don’t have to become enmeshed in the surface objects, achievements, or strains of life. We don’t have to allow work events, professional successes, or business challenges dictate the quality of our day – good, bad, or ugly. The Kwan, another classic Jerry McGuire reference, reminds us that life is more than the dollars, but about love, respect and community. 

We can choose to live joyfully in the process - that place in between zero and a hundred. We can choose progress over perfection. The ancient symbol of harmony (yin and yang) reminds us that life is a balancing act and most fulfilling when we embrace the dualities. The ups, the downs, the light, the darkness, the good times, the bad times, the joys, the challenges.

We have two guarantees. 1. We are perfect when we are born. 2. We will be perfect after we die.

As for now? Go ahead and go tadpole hunting after the next big rain shower and gleefully enjoy all the shades of imperfect that life has to offer you.