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[|Blessing or Curse?]
=== A man and his companion lost their way in a forest. The companion despaired, but the man said maybe some good would come of it. They came upon a stranger who needed the man’s help. The stranger turned out to be a prince who gave the man a beautiful horse. === His neighbors praised his good luck and said, “How blessed you are to have such a magnificent animal.” The man said, “Who’s to say whether this is a blessing or a curse?” The next day the horse ran away, and the neighbors said, “How horrible that you were cursed with the loss of your horse.” The man replied, “Who’s to say whether this is a curse or a blessing? Perhaps some good will come of this.” The next day the horse returned leading five wild horses. “You were right!” his neighbors exclaimed. “The curse was a blessing in disguise. Now you’re blessed with six horses.” The man replied, “Perhaps, but who’s to say whether this is a blessing or a curse?” The next day his only son tried to ride one of the wild horses. He was thrown to the ground and broke his leg. The neighbors said, “How wise you were. Your blessing really was a curse.” The man replied, “There may be good yet. Who’s to say whether this is a curse or a blessing?” The next day soldiers came through the village and took every able-bodied boy to fight in a war where it was almost certain all would be killed. Because the man’s son was injured, the boy was the only one not taken. “How blessed are you to keep your son!” the neighbors said. The man replied, “Who’s to say? I don’t know whether there’s a curse in every blessing, but I am sure there’s a blessing in every curse.”

Enough Is Enough What does it take to make you happy? How much do you have to have to be grateful?
To the barefoot man, happiness is a pair of old shoes. To the man with old shoes, it's a pair of new shoes. To the man with new shoes, it's more stylish shoes. And, of course, the fellow with no feet would be happy to be barefoot.

This leads to the ancient insight: If you want to be happy, count your blessings, not your burdens. Measure your life by what you have, not by what you don't.

Yet in our modern world where we're continually exposed to endless increments of more and better – others with more money, better TVs, and bigger houses – this is very difficult.

For some people, the pleasure of having something good is drained as soon as they see someone else with something better. Our sense of contentment is created or destroyed by comparisons.

A life consumed with unfulfilled wants is an affliction. The antidote is the concept of "enough."

This starts by thinking more clearly about the difference between our needs and our wants, between sufficiency and abundance.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with wanting more and striving to fill our lives with things and experiences that give us pleasure, so long as we don't believe we // need // whatever we want.

When we think we need what we really only want, we make our desires preconditions to happiness, thereby diminishing our ability to appreciate and enjoy what we do have.

It's easy to think happiness is achieved by getting what we want when it's really a matter of wanting what we get.

In the end, enough is enough.

Lessons From a Carrot, Egg, and Coffee Bean
Let's face it. Painful personal trauma and tragedy – like illness or injury, death of a loved one, loss of a job, or an unexpected breakup of a relationship – are unavoidable. The question is: Will these private calamities erode our capacity to be happy or cause us to become stronger and better able to live a meaningful and fulfilling life?

Consider how differently carrots, eggs, and ground coffee beans are affected by the extreme adversity of being boiled. Like a carrot, adversity can soften us. We can emerge more flexible, understanding, compassionate, and grateful, or we can let our life spirit turn into a soft mush.

Like an egg, boiling water can make us harder, stronger, tougher, and wiser, or we can become more cynical, pessimistic, callous, and inaccessible.

And like a coffee bean, we can willingly transform our lives into something better or lose ourselves completely.

We can't control what happens to us, but we have a lot to say about how we react and, therefore, what happens // in // us. The first step to turning adversity into advantage is to get out of the hot water as quickly as possible. Don't dwell on catastrophe. Grieve, but move on. Don't define your life by misfortune.

Second, force yourself to move forward. Draw on your inner strengths, the people who love you, and your faith to transform your life into something better. Formulate a vision of a more purposeful life filled with people and experiences that will help you become more fulfilled.

Making Bricks or Building Cathedrals
According to an old parable, three men were working hard cutting stone from large blocks of granite. When asked what they were doing, the first fellow said, “I’m making bricks.” The second said, “I’m creating a foundation for a large building.” The third person answered, “I’m building a cathedral.”

They are doing the exact same job, and all three responses were accurate, but they reveal the huge difference attitude makes. It’s the difference between tolerating or enjoying one’s life, between thinking small or large.

Mindset matters.

Just like the stone cutters, most of us have a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how we experience and interpret situations. It’s pretty clear that the fellow who saw himself playing an important role in building a grand cathedral is much more likely to feel good about his work and his life than the guy who defines his job as making bricks.

A bookkeeper for a school may think of herself as someone who just works with numbers or as part of an enterprise that educates children. A math teacher can characterize himself as someone who teaches long division, someone who seeks to make all math interesting and understandable, someone who teaches students how to learn difficult concepts, or, larger yet, someone who helps young people develop attitudes and skills that will help them lead worthy and successful lives.

What do you do?

Don’t minimize yourself by just describing the tasks you perform; think big,

There is no job that can’t be meaningful and gratifying, if not because of how it fits into a larger picture of producing human happiness, then at least in terms of the gratification you can feel simply from a job well done.