By Bill Quain
In early January, I started my “Money, Sunny and Honey” series. I then tossed in a couple of time-sensitive “Happy Leap Year” columns. But now leap day has come and gone. Spring and summer seasons are not too far away. So I’m going to complete my “Money, Sunny and Honey” series with a big finish: “Honey, I’m Home. You Still Here?”. By the way, these are six words you should never say — at least, not out loud!
Let’s quickly revisit money and sunny.
Money is easy, right? You need money. “Sunny” is a little more obscure. If you recall from my earlier columns, “sunny” is your mental, physical and emotional health. If you want to be successful in life, or even just a little bit happy, you need to pay attention to your mental, physical and emotional health. It will give you that “sunny” outlook. Remember, the law of attraction states that we attract people who are similar to us. If we put out negative vibes, we attract negative people. If we put out “sunny” vibes, we attract other sunny people! Grumpy people don’t like to be around happy, positive people. Certainly, the reverse is true.
So, get some money and get “sunny”, before you try to get honey! It can be a long life if you get this wrong. When people ask me “Bill, shouldn’t honey come first, before money?”, I always say, “If you haven’t got money, it won’t be very sunny, Honey!”
“Honey” is Your relationships. “Bee” busy.
If you want to enjoy strong, lasting and loving relationships, you need to “bee busy”, because busy bees make the best honey. Building relationships is not a job for the lazy or indifferent. Think about it. You are asking another human being to spend time with you, and possibly commit to you. This is a big deal! After all, you’re probably not the only candidate. If the other person is a good, caring, optimistic person, they will have choices. And, if the person you are after doesn’t have choices, think about this: Maybe you don’t either.
But let’s assume that you do manage to establish a good relationship. If you want it to grow and last, you need to get to work, every day. If you don’t, unless the other person is sleepwalking through life as well, they might just take a second look at who they have (or haven’t) got!
Forty years – We still keep busy.
On June 30, Jeanne and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. I was 31 when we got married, and Jeanne has still not disclosed her age to me. We’ve been through a lot together – professions, kids, houses, and businesses. We’ve had some disagreements, ranging from “Who was supposed to turn the boat battery off?” (that one could have been bad) to “Should we put an angel or a star on top of the Christmas tree?”. Actually, that one ended in tragedy when one of us “accidentally” cut too much off the top of the tree to accommodate the star.
Before we were married, we had a long-distance relationship and had never lived in the same city. When we agreed to get married, we decided to bee busy and move to a neutral corner to start our lives together. We picked Las Vegas of all places! Great town by the way.
We’ve been busy dealing with sickness; I’m blind, and Jeanne battled cancer. We also were busy raising two great kids.
But one thing we always did was make time for each other, and we worked at it every single day. We knew that we had to bee busy to make the sweetest “honey”. And do you know what? It paid off!
Do you want honey? Bee busy!
Some of you might be saying, “I don’t have someone special in my life right now.” Well, the question is, “Do you want someone special?” If you do, don’t passively wait for it to happen. Bee busy now, because that is how you attract someone.
Others might be saying, “Well, I’m with someone right now, but we don’t have a strong relationship.” Do you want to have a strong relationship with that person? If so, bee busy right now, and see if you can sweeten that relationship back up. And don’t bee shy about it.
Spring is the season for honey.
Spring is the time when flowers bloom, and bees start their work. And spring is the perfect season to start your quest for honey! If you want someone, bee busy to attract them. If you already have someone, bee busy strengthening and sweetening that relationship. In other words, don’t wait around for honey. The world is full of stories of lonely people who waited.
And never ask, “You still here?”
Let’s go back to the six words on a Boardwalk bench that started this column. If you have to ask, “You still here?”, then it might be too late. Bee busy, and you won’t have to ask that question.
Now, bee busy and email me.
As always, I’d love to hear from you. Share your “bee busy” stories by emailing bill@quain.com. Visit my website, www.billquain.com to learn more about my speaking, my writing and my story. As I say each week, “I’ll see ya in the papers.”
Bill is a Professor in Stockton University’s Hospitality Management Program. He is the author of 27 books, and a highly-respected speaker. Even though he is almost totally blind, Bill is a long-distance runner and runs the Ocean City Half Marathon each year. He lives in Ocean City with his wife Jeanne, and his Guide Dog Trudy. Visit www.billquain.com or email him at bill@quain.com.
