"Learn to do everything lightly"

Words to lift the spirit

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard.
Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.
Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.
Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
(Aldous Huxley)

I love these lines from Huxley’s novel, Island. I think they have something to say when we feel careworn, down, with the weight of lives on our shoulders. They have something to say when the world seems a bit wobbly or when even just our own bit of it does. They have something to say to young and to older.

He is not saying, as some might believe him to be, “Don’t care about things; don’t feel passionately; don’t fight hard for what you believe; don’t take things too seriously.”

He is saying, I believe:

Don’t overthink
Don’t catastrophise
Don’t assume the worst; don’t see the worst; don’t expect the worst
Don’t wear sunglasses on a grey day
Don’t assume you can’t
Don’t assume others can’t
Don’t make the weight of a thing heavier than it is

Do open the curtains when it’s morning
Do let light shine into corners
Do open your mind and your eyes and your heart
Do believe you can
Do believe others can
Do make things lighter - make light of them

Walk tall; put your shoulders back; hold your head high
Smile; sing; dance
Take a breath and feel yourself a little lighter
And then do it again
One breath at a time

Sometimes it will be hard to do but that is our job as humans: to try hard things and thus to get better at them so they become easier.

Think of a dancer: think of the strength required to seem so graceful, to fly through the air. That’s the sort of lightness we want: the strongest kind.

Do you know anyone who needs Huxley’s words right now? Or do you have better words to pin above your desk or bed to remind you how to live well?