Contentment: How to find happiness in life
Have we forgotten to live the moment?
After waking up this morning, I walked out to the garden to pick some fresh raspberries for my breakfast cereal. As usual, one thing led to another, and once the berries were harvested, the beans and snow peas followed. I was amazed how much the zucchini and the tomatoes had grown overnight – a miracle! I am not one of these persons who were born with a green thumb. But while I was connected with nature, contemplating life, a sudden sense of contentment overcame me. I had planted all of this and now I could reap the benefits.
I had been working for the corporate world for many years and very rarely had I felt such a sense of achievement. Maybe once a year after a good appraisal, when I received the odd bonus, left the office to go on vacation or handed in my resignation. These were rare moments. Now, while I was wandering around the garden, listening to the birds chirp, I realized that it’s not the material things in life that bring true pleasure, it’s the small moments that we tend to overlook. Maybe this is the reason, why so many people feel that there is something missing in life these days. While rushing around multitasking, we quite often forget to stop and smell the roses.
I once read an interesting story: In a small Mediterranean fishing village, a fisherman was sitting at the harbour, gazing out to sea, contemplating life. A vacationing manager walked by and started chatting to the fisherman: “Beautiful day, isn’t it. But, why aren’t you out fishing”? “Well Sir, I’ve already brought in my catch for the day. Now I can just sit here and relax”, the fisherman replied. The manager suggested: “Why don’t you go out again? Then you could earn double and in a year’s time you could buy a second boat. After two years, you could even buy some more boats and before you know it, you could have your very own fishing fleet. You could hire people to do the fishing and retire early. And then, you could sit here and look out to sea”. The fisherman shook his head and said: “But Sir, isn’t this exactly what I am doing right now”?
