Whoever loves money never has enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
This too is meaningless — Ecclesiastes 5:10
Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars… and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers — for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are. –Osho (h/t FeyGirl)
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Yep. So true.
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Yet how few seem to realize that…
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Pretties: Sweet pea, buttercup and…?
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What I see: happy, happy and happy. 🙂
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♥
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Glad you liked it. 🙂
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“Consider the lilies of the field…they toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like these” Seems to me that they are happy to just be, and their beauty is remarkable because of that.
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Yes, so true. I smile when I think of what Emily Dickinson is supposed to have said, “Consider the lilies is the only commandment I ever obeyed.” 🙂
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Lovely, Bill. I wonder — if I were to be a flower – what kind would I be? What kind would you be?
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What a delightful question to ponder! I’m fond of sunflowers and I like the idea of standing tall with a broad smiling face, with adoring pollinators crawling all over me. But the pragmatist in me says I should choose to be a perennial. 🙂
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You made me smile.
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Happiness truly comes from Nature – in all it’s various forms 🙂
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Nature certainly has that effect on me, as long as I don’t let unnatural things distract me. 🙂
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To paraphrase the late great Canadian writer Gabrielle Roy, the heart always wants more.
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Thanks for mentioning Gabrielle Roy. She was unfamiliar to me.
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What a writer she was! A friend—another Franco-American—recommended her to me. So glad he did.
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I bet even the flowers are not as happy as my dog!! 😀
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I recall reading about a study which concluded that farm dogs are the happiest animals on the planet. I’ve never known an animal happier than a good dog. In the study, porpoises were the second happiest animals. I don’t remember if the study considered us humans or not.
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My dog is always so happy. I try to follow his example, but I’m only human, after all.
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Dearest Bill,
With those photos you pretty much captured the essence of life and its happiness.
Hugs,
Mariette
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Thanks Mariette for your kind comment. I just selected a few that went along with the Osho quote. But I didn’t have any pictures of stars. 🙂
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Bill, your photos are always amazing. There is much to consider in life as blessings. In many ways mankind works too hard to exist. Happiness does not lie in stuff. On the down hill side of life, I do not work for gain any more but instead work to bless others. When you returned from your sabbatical from blogging, I have noticed you have a different perspective on things. It’s a better perspective about what life is all about. Our life here in this reality is but a short segment compared to eternity. There is beauty in nature all around us if we would just stop and take a look. Thank you for always bringing a thought provoking post to the blog.
Have a “Happy”: day on the White Flint Farm.
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Thanks Dave. I always enjoy and appreciate your thoughtful comments. It seems to me that if we want to be happy, we must choose to be happy. That won’t guarantee happiness of course, but it is an essential first step. As for changing my perspective, I’m still working on it. This morning I put a note on my desk that reads “Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts” It’s from my favorite Wendell Berry poem and is something I need to cultivate. These days it seems we are bombarded with joy-stealing facts.
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“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?”
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Thanks for sharing. Over the years these words have challenged me as much as any in Scripture. I’m much better than I used to be (I hope) but I still struggle with worry sometimes. I used to be utterly consumed by it. Nowadays I still sow, reap and store away in barns, but I try very hard to not be motivated by worry. Still, I can’t read those words without feeling that the last four are aimed especially at me.
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And you know what else occurred to me at work this afternoon? I’m far more content than I used to be. Not only that, in these latter years, I think I’m beginning to prefer contentment over happiness. Happiness comes and goes, but there have been times when I’ve experienced contentment even in the middle of great unhappiness.
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Well said. I used to blog often about contentment. My musings on that topic had profound effects on my life. Achieving contentment (even striving for it) is a beautiful thing I think. And radically counter-cultural.
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Probably why I have always been happiest when surrounded by nature…
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Me too Curt. It’s been my experience that nature has a way of dissolving (or at least easing) worries.
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Yes one does not need a lot of Money to find Joy and Happiness in the world if one takes time out to look and connect back with all of Natures treasures
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Well said. That’s my sentiment also.
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