What Do We Want? Daily Meditation-November 26, 2021

Today’s Quotation:

A bag of apples, a pot of homemade jam, a scribbled note, a bunch of golden flowers, a coloured pebble, a box of seedlings, an empty scent bottle for the children. . . . Who needs diamonds and van-delivered bouquets?

Pam Brown

Today’s Meditation:

What do we want?  Are our wants sabotaging our feelings of contentment and happiness?  It seems pretty obvious that the simpler we keep our wants, the easier it will be to find contentedness and happiness.  The more complicated or expensive the things that we want, the more difficult it becomes to attain them. And then we find that much of our effort and energy in life is spent in the struggle to attain material things. w that time and effort could be spent in so many other ways that can make us so much happier. Sp what do we want?

The expectations that we choose to have are one way that we determine how we feel.  If our expectations are very high, then we’re setting ourselves up for many disappointments.  And if we always expect things that cost a great deal of money, then someone has to work very hard to make that money, and then spend it on us.

On the other hand, if we make ourselves able to see the incredible beauty in the bag of apples, if we allow ourselves to feel the joy of the expectation of their taste, if we choose to be aware of the miracle of growth that apples represent, then we can make ourselves richer in life without gaining a single material product.  If we can keep alive our recognition of the wonders of life, then our lives will be filled with wonder. All of our days will be filled with bright moments as we realize just what a joy it is to be alive and to be able to partake of such things.

All day, every day, we experience to wonderful things in this life.  The question is, do we choose to see the simpler things as wonderful, or do we lose out on the beauty and magic that they can add to our experiences while we’re here on this planet?

Questions to ponder:

1.  What are some of the simpler things that we tend not to see as marvelous?

2.  Why do so many people need the expensive things to keep them “happy”?

3.  How might our lives change if we’re able to see the marvelous in the simple?

For further thought:

The fewer desires, the more peace.

Thomas Wilson

Credit: Living Life Fully