I hope people wont get put off by the title. No, folks, I am not here to preach on life. I have not got realization sitting under a tree. Nor did I get it from any Guru. Anyway now-a-days even gurus don't teach you the right thing. What I am going to say here is got from my own experience.
Life has taught me a lot of lessons and I was an eager learner. The best one of them was to find happiness in what we have rather than go after it. We realized that real happiness comes form being content. When I say "We" I mean my wife and myself. We have experienced everything together and learned everything together. There is hardly anything that we didn't share. We didn't learn to be content ourselves, rather we were made to learn it.
We were like any young couple, wanting to acquire as many things as possible. Looking at others and wanting to be like them. Seeing what others had and wanting to have the same luxuries in life. We did have the means to do it. We earned well and spent like hell. Credit cards make every purchase possible. But then life is full of twists. There came a time when even the most affordable of things became a luxury for us. We weren't the kind that spends life mourning about what is lost. We decided to find happiness in what we have. We found that even small things, which did not cost a penny could get you so much happiness. The times we spent together, talking, playing, watching our little dear grow up - all these gave us more pleasure than acquiring things. We started looking at people who could not even have these little pleasures. We realized how much happiness He has given us. We were healthy. We had a child who was healthy, happy and lovable. We had friends who would do anything for us. We had family who supported us in our times of trouble. We realised that real happiness comes from these assets and not those tangible, valuable things that we acquire in life. Things that we struggle to buy and show to others, only brought envy in them. They would do a little better than us and then we will need to acquire more, better things. The race would never end. We learned that real happiness comes in being content at what you have and what God has decided to give you.
Even now life is teaching me to be content. I am now in a small town in Tanzania. Here having power for a few hours of a day is a rarity. I know how much I have cursed and sworn when there was no power for even a few minutes. Here I see so many people, not just local people, but people from my own country and state, leading a happy life even when they are in darkness for many hours a day. They have found ways to keep themselves engaged even without the basic amenity of electricity. They have found ways to lead a normal happy life even in these situations. I am also learning. Today I don't swear when the power goes off. I only pray that I have a few hours of electricity to charge my lap top, so that I can write more blogs.
I read somewhere someone saying that he felt sad at not having a good pair of shoes till he saw a man who had no legs. Remember that. Be happy with what you have and life is always beautiful.
I am not vain enough to think that this small blog from me would change the life of many people. But I am vain enough to hope I could bring a small change in some one's life.
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