Insatisfaction eats you up. But sometimes we don’t realize what we have before we lose it. If you have health, food, shelter and loved ones around, there is nothing else you need to be happy. So if you still always feel depressed and sad, the only thing you need to do is to change your mental attitude. Of course, this cannot happen from one day to the other, but it can happen!
There is this great story of a poor farmer who goes to see a master and complains about so many issues in his life. He says that his house is too small, the kids are too loud at night and he is unable to rest in this space. The master asks him if he owns a cow. When he says yes, the master asks him to put the cow inside the house and to come back after a week.
A week later, the man turns up extremely exhausted. He tells the master how terrible things are now that the cow is inside. The house stinks, the smell is unbearable, so they have to open the windows and it is so cold. The kids sleep even less than before, he can’t take it anymore. The master then asks if he has a chicken, and he does. So he tells him to bring the chicken inside and come back after a week.
A week later, the man comes back with great effort, walking has become really difficult because he is barely sleeping. He tells the master how the chicken jumps around, the cow gets irritated by it and doesn’t sleep either, there is noise and bad smell and cold….so then the master asks him to bring his dog inside the house too and to come back after a week.
A week later, the man, completely desperate, exhausted and out of breath appears at the master’s place and this time the master doesn’t even ask, he just tells him: take the dog out and come back next week.
So the week after, when the man comes back to the master, he tells him he slept much better because the dog who was barking all night and keeping his family and the other animals from sleeping, was finally silent outside. He feels so much better. So the master tells him to take the chicken out and come back after a week.
The next week, the man is happy: without the chicken, sleep is so much better, everyone is used to the smell of the cow by now and sleeping perfectly well. His wife is thrilled to have more peace and quiet during the day too. So then, the master says: it is time to take out the cow!
And so, the man takes out the cow and that day, he feels blessed. He feels happy. His house feels so cosy, his family is so thankful. They spend a wonderful evening and night in their house. He goes to see the master and thanks him for his blessings.
I realized that many American movies are actually set up this way: first, they show people living a good life but often fighting and not that happy , then a disaster happens, then the same people are back together, sometimes in a worse state or even with one person less because s/he died during the disaster. And they are so happy everything is bad to good.
Please don’t wait for the cow to come in, enjoy what you have now!
