It's the one about the elderly gentleman moving into a nursing home. He philosophizes that the happiness you get from life is proportionate to the expectations you put into it. Now, I don't for a minute believe this specific scenario actually occurred but someone had a point in making it up.
Anyway, I had seen it before, but this morning I noticed something that I must have glossed over previously. At the end were some rules for being happy. I'm not saying that life is always this simple, but there is some truth to them.
They are:
- free your heart from hatred
- free your mind from worries
- live simply
- give more
- expect less
I have attempted to do these things in the last year or two and I have found that it's quite fulfilling. I have better relationships with friends, family, co-workers and the parents of students I work with. I have made more friends and become closer to the ones I already had. I have expected more from myself than from anyone else. As a result, I am much happier with myself and my lot in life. This could be a coincidence, but I highly doubt it.
2 comments:
You may have changed in relatively recent times to do this more than in the past, and that may have produced good results in your life. However, it's certainly not entirely new to you. (Since I have made two references to chronological things, I should clarify that I know you wrote this a year ago, and what I am leading up to is something from some time last millenium.) I don't know exactly when, but you were living at 1604 Savannah. You had graduated highschool already. Of course I was living there, and Jonathan was living there. Anyway, Jonathan and I had just been fighting about something, as was usually the case, unless we were still fighting at that moment. You said to me that it is sometimes much easier to just let things go, even if you're right it can be easier for you to just forget about it.
Sure, I've heard the idea of choosing your battles plenty of times since then, but the way you said it and the timing of when you said it meant that it changed my thinking a lot.
(I think I may have mentioned this event before, but I'm not sure. I have a vague memory of telling you about this a few years ago, and you saying something like, "I don't remember that, but it sounds like something I might have said." That vague memory may or may not be true. You see, I've heard that exact quote many times from many people. Some of the times it's because I have a far higher retention rate for events for which I was present, than most people. Many events, like this one, are simply a "bigger deal" to me than the other people involved.)
Lancifer
You're right, I still don't remember that instance; I vaguely remember saying that bit about how it sounds like me but I didn't remember it until now. Anyway, thanks. :)
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