Everyone wants to be a better person, or they claim to do so, but – people do whine all the time. They’re sensitive all the time about everything. As a kid, I was naive enough to believe what people were telling. I truly believed there were plentiful of logical causes to whine: the weather, lack of income, the neighbours, husband or wife, the kids, culture, bad health, and so on. I supposed that the Earth just turned out to be like this and there was nothing much we could do. It was addressed “destiny” or something.
The thing to do is to beg and not to require for or be obsessed with a better life. I was a good little girl. I am doing fine at school; I am being gracious with the neighbours, cooperative at home, so it was quite tough to keep finding sins for our weekly confession. But because humans are deeply sinful by birth, they told me that I had to go and make a confession anyway. The nuns at school arose with a solution to aid us out: they “equipped” our sins for us. Every Wednesday, on confession day, they gave us a pink paper with our “confessions of the day.” I recall sensing compassionate for the hapless priest that is unseen in a little black cabin and spending the whole day hearing to the confessions of 600 little girls, endlessly retelling the same sins again and again…
As I grow up, I figured out that something was absent. Imagining to be foul by repeating sins someone else had made up for me, which could not be what life is all about. I rejected to more confess sins that I hadn’t committed. I refused to think that I was the cause of my sadness, and that I had to pray every day without things getting improved.
From the eyes of a child, people only grumble for a reason: awful weather, lack of income, etc. But for example the black people in Africa, who were living in their villages with close to nothing are not complaining. When they are not hungry or threatened, they have nothing except a big smile on their face, while we had everything and we’re still complaining! How could this be?
It turned crystal clear to me that the complaints had nothing to do with the outside conditions. It was an posture, a habit. Next, I searched to find out where this habit came from. So I inspected the way of life of the local people and evaluated it with our way of life. When at last I arose with the rationalization, it converted my life forever!
There are two crucial distinctions between them and us. The 1st differentiation is that, they have a social network to help everyone in the village. They stay as one. They don’t shove out people who don’t fit the measure. In our society, everybody who’s a little different is sent off to an “asylum.” An asylum is a place to gather those individuals who cannot engage the quick pace of society and thus, fall out of the boat. Most institutions have tremendous walls to keep us from “seeing” that these people in truth live. They look more equal a prison than a shelter.
Who are these people that don’t fit in our society? Located behind walls so we don’t have to confront to them? They are the handicapped, the unhealthy, the dangerous ones, the mentally retarded or demented, those who are too slow, too hard to manage, and those who are too wore down and too old.
There in Africa, everybody lives in his own village and is accepted and taken care of. Everybody has a natural social network and access to aid. You’re not withdrew from society just because you cannot walk or because you’re mentally slow. They stay together. I puzzled out that interior solitude and remoteness is among the first causes how come we’re complaining so much.
The second distinction is that, all of these people are attached something “greater” than themselves. They have a firm trust in a God who takes care of them. They spend a lot of time doing rituals to please their God(s) and acquire good health and harvest in return.
I gave these two distinctions a lot of thoughtfulness and reasoned that making social networks of people and a firm association with something greater than us are essentially crucial basic principle of human happiness.
It’s all about “connection”, connection to each other and connection to the cosmos. I discovered that good matters can occur only if we stay linked to each other and to the universe. I began studying the Laws of the Universe and spent a lot of energy aiding people making a relationship to one another and to the universe. As a matter of fact, this became the very cause of my life.
A lot of people consider they are alone, powerless and have to do everything by them. This is not the case. You’re directed; you’re admired by something larger than your little personality. Try to sense this relationship. Take time each day to combine to the root. Adapt what the African people are doing. I was favored to ran into someone like them. Build a actual relationship between yourself, the Universe and the people close to you without being overly needy onto other people. You will never feel alone again and you will be able to multiply a lot more love around.
Living this kind of “connected life” will make you dismiss about your earlier charges. What’s there to grumble about? Your complaints will be replaced by admiration! Say “thank you” to the Universe for all the things you already have, and for all the wonderments that may still traverse your path. State your sincere gratitude for all the love you have obtained and will keep obtaining throughout your life. Be grateful for the fresh water coming out of the tap by a simple gesture of your hand, while a lot of people spend six hours every day to get a little bit of water, and others pass away of dehydration. Be grateful for the light we turn on with a simple click. Big components of the world have to do without electrical power! Say “thank you” for the variety of nutrient that is available to you day-after-day – a lot of people have to get by on one poor meal a day, or are simply starved.
There is so much to be grateful for. I sensed so ashamed when I was in Africa, at 29 years old, hearing my white friends, bathing in luxury but still complaining, while my black friends, who had about nothing, were laughing, sociable, grateful and most of the time somewhat content with the little things in life.
It’s all in the head. Gratitude and happiness are attitude and a state of being. It has nothing to do with conditions. The attitude is gratitude, and acknowledging that will help you become a better person!
