Happiness

[PureInsight.org] I am a nurse
and, like many people, my life is very simple and ordinary.  I
don't particularly care about this busy world and the world returns my
indifference. As time goes by, I discover that the world I don't care
for becomes more and more attractive to me.  Thus, my tranquility
has been broken down and I want more.



I have never been a materialistic person, but I do like to enjoy life.
I hope to have a life filled with happiness even though I cannot quite
define what happiness really is.  When I was in grade school, I
read a story in our text book called, "What is happiness?" I do not
believe anyone wants to consider what was discussed in an elementary
school book, including me.



One afternoon last summer, I was walking on the street out of boredom.
A motorcycle hit a little girl from the village. The little girl was
following her grandfather who was old and poor. The one who hit the
little girl sped off immediately. I looked at them and went over to
check her injury which was not serious. I took her to the hospital and
bandaged her up.  The old man told me that they were poor
villagers and just came into the city to buy some fruit. They were very
grateful and thanked me again and again.  I told them that it
would heal in a few days. The old man took out a roll of small bills
from his pocket to pay me and was worried that he did not have enough.
I told him that it was not necessary and they left with overwhelming
gratitude.



I forgot about this incident very quickly and tried to live differently
many times since then. Unfortunately, I failed to find happiness. One
night at work, I was feeling sad that happiness was getting away from
me.  I was quite troubled the next morning. When I looked out of
my window, the world was just as busy as before and I was kind of lost.



Suddenly I heard someone shouting "Doctor! Doctor!" I recognized that
he was neither my patient nor my relative. However, he looked familiar
to me. Soon I realized that he was the grandfather of that little girl
whom I helped to bandage.  She held onto her grandfather's clothes
and said, "She is the one."  The old man put down the heavy bag
from his shoulder. I had mixed feelings seeing him carry such a heavy
bag.  The old man smiled and said that his granddaughter was
totally healed and he wanted to come to thank me. He opened the bag and
showed me the big red apples. I was astonished. He told me that his
entire family carefully picked those apples because they did not have
anything better to give me. I asked them to sit down and remembered
that at seven a.m. it was too early for any bus to be running
yet.  The old man said that villagers were not like city folks and
they liked to walk. They had walked more than two hours to come to the
city.



After I sent them off, I looked at the heavy bag of apples and thought
about how they had carefully picked the apples and how they had walked
many miles to bring them to me. I thought about their simple and pure
hearts. I hoped that this little girl could go to high school in the
city, have a good education, and find a good job like I had.



 I realized how fortunate I was: young, capable, knowledgeable,
with a good job and a good heart. Looking at the bag of apples, I
understood that my happiness was about to overflow. Happiness at that
moment was solid, just like these big red apples.



I think that now I can define happiness. Cherish what you have and you will find that happiness is unbelievably simple!



Translated from:

http://xinsheng.net/xs/articles/gb/2005/8/21/33710.htm