Contentment

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from the trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad”.

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

“Oh yes”, said the son.

“So, tell me, what you had learned from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered: “I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

“We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden and they have a creek that has no end.

“We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

“Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

“We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

“We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

“We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added: “Thanks, Dad for showing me how poor we are.”

I think many of us have read the story above from elsewhere before. I re-post the story here from Paulo Coelho’s blog just to share it again to you, in case you have forgotten about it.

I was smiling while reading it as it reminded me on my stay in Gelephu village, southern part of Bhutan.

Happiness comes from contentment :)

Although it’s only a short one night stay, I felt so amazed and grateful that all the nature beauties (vast paddy green fields, fireflies’ sparks, stars’ light, and so on) were all priceless. The peace and serene you felt living surrounded with family members, the togetherness, was something that money couldn’t buy.

However, human were still human. Perhaps we just didn’t realize on what we had as we kept looking out for something else that was greater (perhaps more power, more money,  higher education, more fame – bigger house, bigger car, luxury living, and so on), that people could envy us about. Many times we didn’t realize that we’ve actually had much more than that and that was something others didn’t have no matter how much money they’d got with them.

And after all, contentment is our greatest wealth. Not based on how much we have, but how content we are with what we have, be grateful with it, and share the excess with others who needs it.