{"id":43277,"date":"2025-01-04T16:00:42","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T00:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=43277"},"modified":"2026-06-05T09:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:21:14","slug":"most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Huston Smith on the Most Important Thing You Can Do in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<nav id=\"genesis-nav-secondary\" class=\"nav-secondary genesis-responsive-menu\" aria-label=\"Secondary\">\n<div class=\"wrap\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_43307\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43307\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2025\/01\/04\/most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2025\/01\/04\/most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025\/ noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-43307 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/huston-smith-2012-2-RESIzED.webp\" alt=\"huston-smith-most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43307\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Huston Smith at 93 signed copies of his book, &#8220;And Live Rejoicing&#8221; at a bookstore in Oakland, California &#8212; and gave a tip for the most important thing you can do in 2025. <em>Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h5><strong>The Most Important Thing You Can Do in 2025<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Huston Smith was 93 years old, and he had a point that he wanted to make that day.<\/p>\n<p>The man had lived a long and thoughtful life, studying and, in some cases, practicing the world\u2019s great religions. He had taught religion at places like MIT and UC-Berkeley. He had more than a dozen books to his credit, including the best-selling classic <em>\u00a0The World\u2019s Religions. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>And now, on a Sunday afternoon in September in 2012, dozens of Huston Smith&#8217;s readers and devotees had shown up to hear him read from his latest book at a bookstore in Oakland, California.<\/p>\n<article class=\"post-11583 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey tag-and-live-rejoicing tag-dont-miss tag-huston-smith tag-im-getting-older tag-memoir-books tag-religion-and-spirituality tag-sagrada-bookstore entry\" aria-label=\"Religion Scholar Huston Smith at 93 \u2014 \u2018Be Happy!\u2019\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>The point Huston wanted to make on that day was this:<\/p>\n<p>Happiness \u2014 we should have more of it.<\/p>\n<p>Happiness is the human birthright, he said. \u201cAnd if we are not happy then that\u2019s a sign that there is something wrong with what we are doing \u2013 to alert us to the fact that we must change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, from his vantage point of nearly a century devoted to the study of life and truth and the meaning of it all Huston wasn\u2019t telling his fans they\u00a0<em>could<\/em>\u00a0have more happiness. He was telling us we\u00a0<em>should<\/em> have more of it.<\/p>\n<p>And so now as another year begins to unfold, I&#8217;m telling myself &#8212; maybe that&#8217;s my new year&#8217;s resolution, maybe that&#8217;s the most important thing you can do in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>To live rejoicing is something of an obligation we have as living, breathing sentient beings with just enough free will to make some key choices.<\/p>\n<p>The title of this, his latest book, says it all, Huston told the crowd. It\u2019s a memoir, stories of pivotal moments in the author\u2019s personal and spiritual life. The title, <em>And Live Rejoicing<\/em>, is taken from the eighteenth century hymn, \u201cOh Happy Day,\u201d popularized in the \u201970s by folksinger Joan Baez.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Oh Happy Day<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p><em>Oh happy day, oh happy day,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>When Jesus washed my sins away.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>He taught us how to watch and pray,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And live rejoicing every day.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Later, during the Q&amp;A, Huston was asked whether Christianity and Zen were compatible.<\/p>\n<p>Huston said he thought that all of the major religions \u2013 he called them revelations \u2013 were channeled by the divine. \u201cI do not prioritize any one of them, not my Christianity or any one of them. If that be heresy, then make the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, he said, \u201cI was born of missionary parents and that meant that I was imprinted with Christianity from the very beginning. You peel Christianity off of me and there is no Huston left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cAnd Live Rejoicing: Chapters from a Charmed Life \u2014 Personal Encounters with Spiritual Mavericks, Remarkable Seekers, and the World\u2019s Great Religious Leaders<\/em>,\u201d by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LDPDP8hHJWE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Huston Smith<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.philcousineau.net\/\">Phil Cousineau<\/a>, New World Library.<\/p>\n<p><em>On that September day, Huston Smith had only four years of rejoicing left to him. He died in 2017. Here&#8217;s what I had to say about that: <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2017\/01\/05\/huston-smith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Huston Smith dies at 97 &#8212; A Mentor to Me and to Millions.&#8221;<\/a><\/em><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11594\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11594\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11594\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_11590\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11590\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2025\/01\/04\/most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2025\/01\/04\/most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025\/ noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11590 size-medium\" title=\"huston-smith-at-93-by BF-newhall\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/huston-smith-2012-09-23-by-BF-Newhall-387x580-1.webp\" alt=\"Huston Smith most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11590\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Huston Smith at 93. <em>Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2025\/01\/04\/most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2025\/01\/04\/most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025\/ noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-43307 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/huston-smith-2012-2-RESIzED.jpg\" alt=\"huston-smith-most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After nearly a century devoted to the study of life and truth and the meaning of it all, religion scholar Huston Smith had some advice for his fans.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2025\/01\/04\/most-important-thing-you-can-do-in-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,226],"tags":[2938,2939,134,34,314,2809,2940,2941,82,91],"class_list":["post-43277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey","category-older-and-older","tag-2938","tag-be-happy","tag-books","tag-dont-miss","tag-huston-smith","tag-new-year","tag-new-years-resolution","tag-oh-happy-day","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-religion-and-spirituality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43277"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48628,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43277\/revisions\/48628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}