Happiness

This story is about a beautiful, expensively dressed lady who complained to her psychiatrist that she felt that her whole life was empty; it had no meaning.
So the counsellor called over the old lady who cleaned the office floors, and then said to the rich lady, "I'm going to ask Mary here to tell you how she found happiness. All I want you to do is listen."
So the old lady put down her broom and sat on a chair and told her story: "Well, my husband died of malaria and three months later my only son was killed by a car. I had nobody... I had nothing left. I could'nt sleep; I couldn't eat; I never smiled at anyone, I even thought of taking my own life. Then one evening a little kitten followed me home from work. Somehow I felt sorry for that kitten. It was cold outside, so I decided to let the kitten in. I got it some milk, and it licked the plate clean. Then it purred and rubbed against my leg, and for the first time in months, I smiled. Then I stopped to think; if helping a little kitten could make me smile, maybe doing something for people could make me happy. So the next day I baked some biscuits and took them to a neighbour who was sick in bed. Every day I tried to do something nice for someone. It made me so happy to see them happy. Today, I don't know of anybody who sleeps and eats better than I do. I've found happiness, by giving it to others."
When she heard that, the rich lady cried. She had everything that money could buy, but she had lost the things which money cannot buy.

Remember.... Happiness is in Giving.....

Blame

Few days back, I was talking to my friend who was a bit upset. He had a strained relationship with his dear friend. Obviously he was disturbed. I called him to talk to him and if possible share few good words with him just to make him feel better. We had a long conversation. Something unusual about the conversation was; I noticed, never, not even once did my friend speak a word against his dear friend. He never blamed her for what went wrong. In turn he told me “she is not to be blamed. I wanted things to go my way. But it didn’t. Why should I blame her? "

Though those were very simple words, I shall never forget them.

Don’t we all find ourselves getting angry and worked up? Don’t we all immediately start casting about in our mind to identify someone to blame for the problem?

Don’t we all blame others just because things didn’t go our way???

Like, blaming a boss who made us work late, blaming a maid who came in late.
I don’t know what difference my words made on my friend. But his wonderful words of wisdom had a great impact on me. I learnt that the easiest thing to do is to find fault. But if we make that one effort to feel compassion instead of blame, the heart opens again and shows us a new way.

Blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him/her, it will not change YOU. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty by blaming him. But you won't succeed in changing something that is about YOU which is making you unhappy.

Stop blaming others and take ownership of your life.

Thanks to my friend who shared such wisdom.

Taste Of Life

One day a young girl went out to dinner with her parents.
As usual she ordered her favorite Spaghetti and waited eagerly for it. Her dad ordered few other dishes which included Tofu and Cashew Fried Rice. The young girl hated this dish which her dad ordered. But her dad would always ask her to have it. The young girl watched as her dad completed placing the order. Now she knew her dad would again ask her to have the Tofu and Cashew Fried Rice.

She contemplated in her mind that this time she will gobble up the fried rice without making much fuss before she touches her all time favorite spaghetti. She wanted to enjoy every bit of spaghetti and didn’t want to get back home with the bad taste of fried rice in her mouth. As her mind was engrossed in these thoughts, dishes arrived at the table.

Her dad quickly asked her, “Dear which dish would you like to taste first? The one you Love or the one you hate?”

Without taking a moment’s time, she answered, “I will eat the dish which I hate first. I can complete it and enjoy my favorite dish for a long time later”.

Then her dad explained to her something which made a significant difference to her way of thinking. After a long time later now, she fondly remembers this incident which can be called as, "Balanced life theory".

Her dad said, “See dear, if you eat what you like first, there are chances that you may be full before you even start eating your favorite dish, or the chances are that you are not there to enjoy your dish at all.
At the same time, if you first eat what you love the most, there are chances that you end up eating it all up and you might not have anything left for the future. Later you may end up eating what you hate for the rest of your life. So you should always strike a balance. The balance between what you like and what you do not. Balance between good and bad”.

This applies to everything in life. Life’s dish has its share of good and bad, the taste which you like and the taste which you hate. You should know how to balance it. Or you may end up blaming LIFE for having tasted BAD always.

Learn to Give

The other day, I boarded a luxury AC Volvo bus en route to my office. As I plugged in the headphone and relaxed, I watched an old lady boarding the bus, hobbling with her walking stick, frowning slightly and then smiling. In appearance she looked tiny with a heavily wrinkled face and a bent back. She looked like a woman worn out with years of hard work and suffering. When she finally saw a seat, her face lit up with happiness. The overwhelming sense of relief was evident on her tired face as she thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of the AC bus. Her joy was to end very soon. She was unaware that luxury costs more. When the ticket collector told her that AC bus ticket costs her 5 bucks more than the normal non-AC bus ticket, her face filled with disappointment. Unable to pay the extra cost, she decided to leave. As I watched her getting down, I felt very sorry for the old lady.

Sooner a gnawing sense of Guilt bothered me. I asked myself, “Why did I allow her to leave?”, “Why didn’t I pay those 5 bucks to help the lady, when 5 bucks is not a big deal for me?”, “Why didn’t I help somebody instead of just being a mute spectator?”.

Guilt need not always be the result of doing something inconsiderate or immoral, often it is just NOT doing what you think you should. It was same in my case. The guilt of not doing what I could have easily done haunted me. They say ‘there is no religion higher than human service’. Obviously, we can't all be Mother Teresa or Baba Amte, but we can all live in that spirit. In helping others, we can at least help ourselves. Help ourselves out of guilt.

In our own ways, we should all learn to give