Don’t Worry Be Hopey by Ajahn Brahm

Despite a limited time I had during my vacation back at my hometown, I considered myself lucky having a chance to visit a local bookstore located nearby my house. I went inside looking for some interesting books around and the big poster outside the bookstore attracted me to pick that book. Yes, the title above was the book that I picked, together with his trilogy books – “Si Cacing dan Kotoran Kesayangannya.”

Don't Worry Be Hopey by Ajahn Brahm

As for my usual thought, “If you can’t find the ‘Master’ physically, get their ‘Teachings’ literally, and it will be the same.” And I’m glad I found them and chose that book to read as a starting point of the Goat year. Hope I can learn some knowledge and wisdom from it and apply it into my daily life :)

Just like his previous book, “Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung” that I read before, this book consists of short stories collections. Very easy to read and digest. “Don’t Worry Be Hopey” is written in Indonesian language. But don’t be disheartened as you can find this book in English version with a title of “Don't Worry, Be Grumpy: Inspiring Stories for Making the Most of Each Moment.” It’s more or less having the same content.

Source: Google.com

I quote one of the short stories here and hope Ajahn Brahm won’t mind if I share it with you:

Lower your expectation – Man wants to have a beautiful wife. Woman wants to have a rich husband. Both of them should have lowered down their expectation in order to be happy. When a man marries with a beautiful girl, he will get jealous and feel uneasy for the rest of his life, worries that his beautiful wife will one day be stolen or attracted by other guys. If he chooses to marry an ugly woman, he doesn’t have to worry about anything like that. 

And if the woman marries with a rich husband, she too will worry for the rest of her life that her rich husband will have another affair with other women. If she marries with a poor husband, he won’t be able to afford the expenses of another woman, therefore, there is no need to worry about such thing and she can live peacefully. These are the examples where lower down your expectation makes your life easy and far more enjoyable and happier :) 

I think the above is right as I don’t marry neither rich nor handsome husband so I don’t have to worry about anything like that to happen in my life hahaha…. :P Instead, I got married with a man who has a handsome heart and a man who is willing to do anything for me with little things that he has ;)

Click here to get the feeling of the other stories inside the book and if you like it, buy one for yourself if you happen to find it in the book store at the country where you stay and lend it around to others so that they can learn some lessons from there too.

I wish everyone have a great Goat Year ahead and keep filling yourself up with good books and keep writing my dear blogger friends. Take care and have fun!!! :)

P.S. Hopey means the opposite of worrying. Remaining hopeful; so as not to hold fear, anxiety or worry.