Often times when we hear the word contentment we shiver at its seeming limitations. We have been told throughout our lives to be happy with what we've got only when what I really want is either not available, unattainable or out of my reach. I have been taught to appreciate that which I have and in a sense "make do". Attached to it was a definite consciousness of lack. And I have therefore learned to dislike the idea as one of settling. However, when I begin to see the power that lies within contentment and the joy which permeates the ability to appreciate I am then empowered to live a life of blessing, enriched with a constant happiness.
Dis-content is neither a state of happiness nor peace. A lack of appreciation will always yield sorrow. Let me begin to appreciate the fullness of my life. Look at all the treasures I already have instead of what is lacking.
At whichever store my thoughts are spent, that will be the quality of my purchase. If I shop at the store of discontent...
With regard to relationship and connection, let me begin to appreciate the goodness in others. When I see the defects and shortcomings in others, I accumulate the very same. My shopping cart is full of that which will cause only discontent and sorrow. Let me instead shop at a more elevated store. I will shop at the store of appreciating that which is lovely in another. By so doing my cart becomes full of that which will create happiness not only in my life but in the lives of others as well.
When you go to the mall, you don't buy from every store. You have set certain standards about where you will shop. You set standards for your children as well. Similarly, I must begin to be conscious about where I allow my thoughts to be spent. When I go to the nursery I buy sweet smelling flowers. I tend not to buy flowers that smell like a trapped skunk. Even though they do exist and are for sale. I discriminate and choose that which will give me happiness to be around. For me, sitting in a garden or a room with a bouquet of skunk flowers would not create happiness. So I purchase the latter.
Sometimes we think that "I didn't know", or "I had no control over it... the other one was responsible" etc. But if I were to sit quietly and have an honest discussion with myself I would realize that I was always the one driving the cart, and also it was indeed I who chose what to put in it. It's time to stop playing the victim and claim your birthright as a self- sovereign.
When I lay in my hospital bed, unable to move my limbs on my right side, I remained quite appreciative that I could move my left side. Though my speech was slurred and rather unattractive to the ear and at times unintelligible, I remained appreciative that I could communicate at all. This was the game I played with myself. The game of remaining happy; the game of appreciation.
As my physicality improved and I returned to my home, I went in the swimming pool, which now became a stand around and take three steps pool. If I tried to swim, I sank. So standing and walking was about it. I remember very clearly being greatful that I could stand in the pool at all. At about that same time, Christopher Reeve had had his riding accident. He couldn't move at all. I remember thinking that he would've given anything to be able to stand in a pool on his own. You see, I could have been discontent saying "Oh darn now I can't even swim". But instead I appreciated the fact that I could enjoy the pool at all. I still had fun and enjoyed the cool water.
Every day I receive "Thought for the Day" on my computer. Today's thought for the day was "The more I develop the habit of noticing goodness, the more my own sense of wellbeing rises". That about sums it up.
Today someone sent me a slide show in my e-mail. It was about appreciation. Side by side photos of western children and third world children. The western children; plump and with toys and computers etc, the third world children mal nourished and without basic necessities. It showed that we aren't happy if we don't receive the exact brand of shoes we wanted; contrasted with a picture of children wearing smashed plastic soda bottles strung with string for straps. It showed us not wanting to eat our veggies; contrasted with the empty bowls of emaciated children. It showed our children complaining about going to school, sitting in front of state of the art computers; contrasted with children squatting to write their numbers in the dusty road. And our children bored of the same games; contrasted with children sitting in filth playing next to a skull with pebbles. I have never seen worse pictures.
There was one in particular which struck me hard. A small boy was holding an even smaller boy. The first appeared to be about six years old, the second between one and two. The six year old was facing the camera and so the one he was holding had his back to us. Every single bone in that child's naked body was piercing through his skin. He was quite literally bones with the thinnest layer of skin stretched over them. There were bones showing that I was not even aware we had in our bodies! His rump was non existent. No fullness at all. Strange looking bones were all this child had to sit on. It made me instantly un-easy and painful. And you know that not only does he not come with his own cushion to sit on, but there are no soft sofas either. This child sits on the cold, hard ground with his bones protruding!
I could not see the face of that one, but his one inch arms were lovingly wrapped around the six year olds neck. I remember looking at the picture with mercy and noticing that "And yet he smiles!" The older boy had a lovely smile across his face. He appeared to be happy and yes content. The caption that went with this picture read "Are you still complaining?" It added "Observe around you and be thankful for all you have in this transitory lifetime." "We are fortunate; we have much more than we need to be content... let us complain less and give more."
I have met some children like these on my outreach trips in India. A local doctor, Dr. Vinay Laxmi ventures out to the poorest of remote villages and offers her services to these children. When I visit, I often accompany her, bringing thrift store clothes and small toys. The one thing which has never been lost to me is all the smiles, the happy faces which are literally everywhere. These children never need to be told to smile for the camera. They are always smiling! They have nothing and yet are always smiling! We have so much and seem to always be discontent. We always want more and when I get that I want something else.
If I wish to be happy, I must begin to appreciate what I already have and develop a sense of contentment. This feeling of always wanting, wanting, wanting will never subside on its own. I must use my intellect and think. I have so much. I must look around at all I do have and cease complaining about what I don't have. Would you go to the supermarket, fill up your cart to the overflowing with all your favorite foods and then complain that you left all that other stuff on the store shelves? There are billions of items on those shelves not only don't you need them all, you don't want them all! Similarly, it's this very same sense of false desire which has us under its illusory spell.
Being content is simply a matter of slowing down and realizing I already have all that I need or want. Peace, love, purity, extreme happiness and inner power have always been mine. I can never nor ever have been separated from it. It has just been covered over with surplus. That which we sought because we thought it would bring happiness has created exactly the opposite effect. It has hidden my natural happiness and wellbeing away. It has been buried so deep under many years of wrong choices that by this time I even doubt it ever having existed.
The time is now upon me to reclaim what is mine. To live as I was meant to live; to think as I was endowed to think, and to embody my divinity.
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