Simple Rules to Happiness

The Nursing Home
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The 92-year-old petite, well-poised and proud lady,
who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock,
with her hair fashionably fixed and makeup perfectly applied
even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.

Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move
necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the
nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.

As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator,
I provided a visual description of her tiny room,
including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window.
"I love it," she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old
having just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mrs. Jones, you haven't seen the room... just wait."
"That doesn't have anything to do with it," she replied.
"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.
Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the
furniture is arranged... it's how I arrange my mind."

"I've already decided to love it.
It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up.
I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed
recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that
no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones
that do.

Each day is a gift and as long as my eyes open,
I'll focus on the new day
and all the happy memories I've stored away
just for this time in my life."

"Old age is like a bank account.
You withdraw from what you've put in.
So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness
in the bank account of memories."

"Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank.
I am still depositing."

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

~Author Unknown~

The Dangers of Attachment

"A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires - that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still - can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires." - The Bhagavad Gita

Our country is on the very edge of what I believe will be a serious, protracted recession. Hopefully I'm wrong in that assessment, but I can't help but think that the greed, avarice and general "affluenza" that has plagued our country for the past decade or two is now coming back to haunt us. People became so enamored with their luxury cars, their huge houses, and living WELL above their means and now that the party is over, I think we're in for a collective long, dark season ahead.

Further to that thought, I am reading a great book by Dr. Wayne Dyer, and in the book one of the many things he discusses is the critical importance of a proper sense of detachment, specifically with regards to material possessions. I'll quote him below:

"Most of us in the Western world identify ourselves and our relative degree of success or failure by the quality and quanity of stuff that we accumulate.... When you adopt such a stance you set yourself up for perpetual frustration. What you are really saying is that you are valueless, incomplete, and worthless...."

Strong words, but I believe they ring true. Stuff doesn't equal contentment. Never has; never will.

Happiness

I believe happiness which is derived from external circumstances will always be elusive and fleeting. True happiness must come from within, and must be regardless of external circumstances in order for it to be lasting and of any significance.

Below are a few quotes I've found regarding Happiness, Contentment, Joy, etc. Some are serious; some are humorous. All of them will make you think. Enjoy. :-)

-HWHL

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.

-Chinese Proverb

There is nothing more beautiful than cheerfulness in an old face.

-Jean Paul Richter

Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

-Mark Twain

When we cannot find contentment in ourselves it it useless to seek it elsewhere.

-La Rochefoucauld

The secret of contentment is the realization that life is a gift, not a right.

-Anonymous

In the depth of Winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible Summer.

-Albert Camus

The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.

-John Berry

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.

-Willa Cather

Joy is not in things; it is in us.

-Richard Wagner