The OPA! Way is about the pursuit of meaning in our lives. Having deep meaning in our lives helps us enjoy life despite the ups and downs, the joys and the difficulties, we may experience. Meaning gives us a sense of fulfillment and a passion for life. Meaning helps us build resilience.
Meaning helps us live all of life to the fullest with enthusiasm. Meaning is the fuel that keeps the human spirit moving forward at all times, not just during the good times.
Our mission is to help you live a more meaningful life by applying the ageless wisdom of The OPA! Way paradigm and lifestyle. Throughout this book, we share our journey, our adventures, our challenges, and our learning with you. The three core lessons we discovered throughout our odyssey, along with the ways to practice them, can be found in parts two through four, under Others, Purpose, and Attitude, respectively. So, read on and discover how you can live and work with joy and meaning. OPA!
OPA! AFFIRMATION
I find joy and meaning in my life when I live and work The OPA! Way.
Connect Meaningfully with Others
Yesterday we visited the small traditional village of Vrisses, located in the mountainous central region of the island of Crete. We knew from past visits that there was only one very narrow road that wound through the village like a snake, so we chose to be respectful and park our car at the bottom of the village and walk. (We have rarely encountered another car, but if we had, we would have found it extremely difficult to reverse ours without leaving a dint in the wall of someone’s house!)
We climbed the first set of stairs and stopped to catch our breath when we reached the first landing. We continued our journey, climbing another set of stairs fashioned from a mixture of stones and concrete, using the handrail to pull ourselves up the very steep incline. When we stopped to rest again, a tiny old woman passed us, dressed in black from head to toe and laden with two bags overflowing with the greens she must have just picked from the hillside. She smiled and said, “Yiasas.” (This is a common greeting used in Greece and literally means, “To your health.”) We echoed her greeting, smiled, and realized that she was probably thirty years older and definitely in much better shape than we were from climbing these stairs on a daily basis in the fresh mountain air.
We continued our ascent and gave thanks to the person who installed the railing fashioned from old pipes, a necessity on rainy or snowy days, and, of course, for visitors like us. We turned the corner and finally reached our destination—the home of YiaYia (Grandmother) Maria. There she was, standing in the doorway of her small home, her eyes twinkling with life, all five feet of her. Of course, she was also dressed in black, the national color and uniform of older Greek women. Her silver-gray hair was tied back neatly in a bun, secured with numerous bobby pins.
“Welcome, welcome,” she said with a wide smile and outstretched arms, as she ushered us into her home, a one-room house of roughly four hundred square feet. The house was sparsely decorated with a single bed, a small wooden table, three old woven thatched chairs where generations before had sat, a cooking area with a single sink, a small cabinet that held dishes, provisions and teas stored for the winter, and, hanging on the whitewashed walls, a few photos of her family. In another corner were the recent additions of a television and telephone.
Everything in Maria’s home has its purpose. We always struggle with what to bring as a present for Maria—what do we buy a woman who looks like she has nothing in comparison to the goods available in our shopping malls in America, but who, in actuality, has everything she needs? We handed her the fresh fruit we had purchased in the city. We knew full well that she had access to many different varieties of fruit and vegetables only steps from her home, so we also brought her a few treats from the bakery.
YiaYia Maria had been busy all day preparing a simple feast for us and the other five relatives who had also come to visit. Her table was overflowing with fresh food to share—thinly sliced cucumbers, cubes of feta cheese, plump red tomatoes, beans, beets, potatoes drenched in olive oil and oregano, olives, slices of freshly baked bread, apples, oranges, nuts, and, of course, small cheese pies for dessert—all served with an abundance of love. Yes, we felt like we were home.
Since there were only three chairs in the room, the other “girls” (YiaYia Maria, her two daughters, and two granddaughters) sat on the edge of the bed. The conversation flowed easily with YiaYia Maria’s positive energy filling the room. As we were enjoying our feast, YiaYia Maria noticed a hole in the knee of her granddaughter’s jeans. “I will sew that for you,” she offered, but was quickly refuted.
“That’s fashion, YiaYia!” responded the granddaughter, eliciting a round of laughter.
“Do you want more food, YiaYia?” asked her granddaughter.
“No thanks,” she replied; “I’m watching my figure.” She burst out laughing again, rolling backward on the bed. She was almost eighty but had the spirit and energy of youth.
A few hours later, the gathering came to an end and we all said our good-byes. Of course, YiaYia Maria handed us a few extra cheese pies to take with us on our journey. As we descended the hill, holding onto the railing once again, we remarked to each other about what a wonderful visit it had been. We’ve been to gatherings in homes many times larger than YiaYia Maria’s was, equipped with many more so-called amenities, but we have never experienced the feelings of warmth and belonging as we did on that day. Once again, our visit to the village of Vrisses had reminded us of the value of living in and connecting meaningfully with others in the village.
Humanity
We can use the concept of “village” to define many groups of people—from a few family members to a collection of people living in a neighborhood, organization, city, or even nation. What makes a village is not the number of people or the buildings or the possessions of its members, but the energy that is shared between the people who choose to belong to that village. It’s their energy, which is breathed into the space. Importantly, their energy can be positive or negative—both good and bad can spread throughout any village.
—PARMENIDES
In a deeper metaphysical sense, a collective life is created in the village. Life is reflective. Life in the village reflects the belief, “I am because of you. I am more of myself because I am connected to others in our village, be it the village where I live or where I work.” For YiaYia Maria, she is because she is a part of the village. Living her life in the village of Vrisses gives Maria a deep sense of humanity, belonging, and meaning. And like YiaYia Maria, many