When does a viewing of an episode of the US television series Ugly Betty and the Rick Stein sojourn through Asia, Far Eastern Odyssey, become especially relaxing? It is the evening in early June after a hiatus from the Reserve Bank Australia in edging up the interbank rate after four months, a welcome relief as the Bank seemed to be utilising the rate as apparently the only tool to affect monetary policy for the nation. The dishwasher was running a cycle, also especially appreciated as it was not properly working not too long ago. I realised having arrived at such simple but not to be taken for granted pleasures, which offer personal happiness beyond expectations and which one need not contrive for - the positive feelings just emerged, as unplanned as pottering in a garage on a rainy weekend afternoon or from strolling amongst well placed displays in a shop with no obligation to get or buy anything. Sensations which increasingly we do not get at work, if we join a bad employee environment.
One evening, a feeling of contentment also beamed down from a full golden moon smiling over my bedroom window and the outer courtyard. It was 28 May, the fifteenth night of the fifth lunar month, an anniversary held dear by Buddhists all over the world to commemorate the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha in northern India so many years ago. Cold was the night air but warm was my heart, even if a coolish spell marked the close of autumn in the southern hemisphere. The moon light showed the path to greater heights, I reckoned, and the possibility of hopeful sights. Good vibes have arrived as the distracting evils, from some people who blatantly stirred up trouble, subsided.
We may be instinctively dissatisfied with routine chores, but in the end, they provide a purpose, rhythm and structure. Whether they be gardening, cleaning the shower tiles, vacuuming, adjusting the solar powered garden lights, doing the laundry, getting the essential groceries or collecting the mail, such tasks may provide little achievements by themselves but remind us that we are at least in step with the on-going requirements of daily life, in making our abode cleansed and orderly.
People who do not matter may distract and challenge us on the wayside, but what they do are so dubious and obviously not on our side. Such acts committed by them dissolve easily in impact on us, when compared to the solid little things we continually achieve in making the world a better place, by sharing big things, by communicating important things, by appreciating what others take for granted, by exercising some measure of sacrifice at times and by letting go of rather small matters in the long run. Negative individuals may think they are so clever in scheming acts and verbalising words to try to hurt us, but we let them sink and wallow in their own little worlds of delusion, narrow hearts and falsity.
Happiness may seem elusive, but it does emerge when we least expect it. Therein may lie the secret to achieving contentment, and from contentment, back to that subtle feeling of happiness. Let it be, let others be themselves, and we also observe ourselves from afar - as to how content we can naturally be, without expecting or working too hard about it.
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