Boracay (2007) Painting by Jo Mari

Oil painting on canvas


Contentment is a Virtue

An old joke goes like this; A mother went to the beach with her child. She arranged their things and sat on the beach towel. She opened her book and starts to read while her child run into the ocean and swam. After a few hours a big tidal wave rushes to the beach. The mother saw her child engulf by the wave and was gone. Lifeguards and people in the beach tried to save her child. The mother while crying fell in her knees and starts to pray. "Dear God, Please bring my baby back to me." As if a miracle just happened, the same wave came back carrying her child and gently returned it to the beach. The child was a little shaky but was not hurt. The mother hugged her child, wiped her tears and cried out loud "God damned! My child had a hat when we came here!"

I just went from a derma clinic inside a hospital for the elecrocautery of my warts. Beside the derma clinic is a clinic for diabetic patients. A patient just finished her check-up. She was fat and in a wheel chair. Both of her legs were cut off. The patient's companion was called inside. I heard the doctor telling to the companion that if she could not control her blood sugar her wounds would not heal and she might die. I pity her at the same time thankful to God that I only went to the hospital for my warts.

How many times that we presumed our wants as our needs. Many people have their happiness attached to worldly things. They are so attached to this world that they even spend lots of money to take care of their corpses when they died. People just want and want all of his miserable life and finally when he died he never felt true happiness. All of the material possessions are just temporary, it will fade fast and gone.

"What does a man gets when he gains the whole world and yet looses his own soul". It is only normal to people to be ambitious. Ambition is the fuel for the achievements of man. But it must also have a limitation. Ambition must not be for the glory of man but for the glory of God. We must know when to stop ambition and starts contentment. Let us not reach the level of loosing one's soul. Let us be contended when our wants are affecting our happiness. I believe that theoretically man should be happy. The life that God gave him should be enough to make him happy. If that ambition is making one sorrowful do not wait that it does not only take your happiness but also your faith.

It is very hard to be contented in this world. Everywhere you look is a temptation. Most of us are not saints and contentment is a virtue. But as time passes and your dream fail, that is the time to embrace contentment.

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