Many times have I
wondered how a person could be content when they chose to live in a small
world. Some that I’ve known never lived anywhere else that the neighborhood
where they grew up. One man I talked with boasted of never having been outside
his state. He said he didn’t need to see anywhere else, all he needed was right
in his own state. Another man in particular told me proudly that he never left
Bordentown, New Jersey except for his stint in the Army during World War II. He
was stationed in nearby Fort Dix. He drove a big Cadillac but never outside the
tiny area where he found happiness or at least contentment. As far as I know he
never married, either. That may have had something to do with his being able to
follow his desires and not weave someone else’s into his own.
My youth quietly judged
these people to be of less intelligence than me. In my mind they must be. Not
to have the urge to see other parts of the world must be indicative of a lesser
mind. As time and experience led me on a path to compassion and understanding,
I came to realize that their contentment was just of a different nature than
mine. If anything, these people I’d talked to already attained their area of
satisfaction whereas I was still searching for mine.
Adding to these
deductions is my study into life-after-life. I’ve come to believe that people
with shortened lives, as in dying young, and those happy with their limited (as
I saw it) lives are not deficient at all. They have worked out their karma from
a previous life. In the case of shortened lives I firmly believe they were here
to bless us with their presence, to give us something needed, even if it is the
experience of loss. Love and tenderness comes out of the pain of sorrow, if
nurtured.
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