Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a village with little to do or have? There have been many times when my colleagues and I, when passing by small villages on our way to work, would remark on how nice it would be to just retire or stay in one of those “kampungs”. For many of us, especially those of us who live in the city, in concrete houses with many amnesties, we would find that idea insane. After all, who would want to live in a small house in a village with little or no modern appliances? One would know better.
Sometimes when we have the opportunity, my friends and I would talk to these villagers just to find out what kind of life they live. Very often, they are more relaxed and have little stress. They may not have much in terms of material possession or money but they have something that most of us in the city do not have….. a stress free life and life that happier and simpler. Isn’t that what we all look for eventually?
We tend to measure our lives by the things that we have or what we have achieved in terms of career and money. But are our lives measured just by those things? Is happiness truly measured by the things that we own and how high we have climbed the corporate ladder?
“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, Never will I leave you; Never will I forsake you”. (Heb 13:5)
The quote from the Letter to the Hebrews is certainly apt for many of us. If we define happiness as having more and more money, then our lives will just be a series of nonstop misery and agony. Why do I say this? Have you ever observed the houses of the rich? Some of the common things you can find among those houses are guards, high brick walls, CCTV and guard dogs. People who are rich live in fear of being robbed or kidnapped. They live behind their walls and guards, thinking that they can be protected from danger. But they forget one thing… they have unconsciously imprisoned themselves with their riches.
Think about it. Would a person be happy if he lives behind walls, not wanting to mix around with anyone? When I was staying over at my sister’s house, I noticed that everyone kept to themselves. This is a gated community and people don’t talk to one another. I noticed that there is a small playground but I see no kids there. Is this what they call happiness? Sitting in their houses of stone, with the air conditioning blowing, and watching TV or playing video games?
When I was young, we ran around looking for things to entertain ourselves, whatever nature and our creativity could provide. I can still remember the simple joy and happiness that I felt while playing with simple things like bottle caps and slippers. Kids these days do not even know what are bottle caps.
We seem to have the lost the art of pursuing happiness. We seem to think that happiness comes from the money that we earn. We think that by giving our children money and gadgets, we are providing them the happiness that they want. But we forget that true happiness does not come from all these.
Money provides security, it is necessary but to what extent to we pursue money, thinking that it will make us happy? Money buys us the comfort that we need, it helps us to live a better life but how much is enough? Would we sacrifice our happiness over our pursuit of money? There will be some who say that when they have enough money they will be happy…but the question remains, how much is enough?
Pursuing happiness is a choice that we make. We can choose to be happy or we can choose to be miserable. What is the use of money when we are lying down in a hospital bed with numerous tubes in our body? Where is the happiness then? We can have tons of money but at that point of time, they are just pieces of paper.
Whatever state of life that we are in, whether or not we have tons of money or just enough to get by, we need to consciously make the choice to be happy. Happiness is a choice, not something that can be bought. No amount of money in this world can buy you happiness. They can buy what we think is happiness but it will never last.
Whatever choice that we make, we must realise that it will affect everyone around us as well. If we choose to be miserable, then everyone else around us will be miserable. If we choose to be happy regardless of the circumstances that we are in, then everyone else around us will also be happy.
The question is…dare we make that choice?
