On simplicity

Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. ~ Marcus Aurelius

I keep having this philosophical conversations with my son - and all the time I am proud of him, of the maturity he proves being able of... but sometimes I am plain scared. How am I going to be able to keep up with him? What if he'll surpass my ability to explain life to him - before he turns 40, that's it :)

Joking aside - since he was born I learned much more than I could imagine! Take science - growing up I loved math & chemistry, but I despised physics (the blame is fully on the teacher), at least until I had one of my mom's colleagues tutoring a group of us before the by-annual exams (yes... we took exams to get from grade 8 to 9th, from 10th to 11, and in grade 12 to get our high-school diplomas... well tested we are, you can say). That's when physics started to make sense. However, it never went to the depths that one needs to answer this simple question: 'mommy, what is plasma?' I really wanted to answer a type of TV, but I knew it's not going to end there. So I learned what plasma is (about 3 years ago).

And same goes for lots and lots of things 'mommy... what is...? how is ... made? who does ... and why? who invented... ?' I'm grateful for the invention of our amazing public library and for the Internet too! Google has been my best friends since the child started talking.

And what does that have to do with your quote? will you say. Actually - a lot. In the beginning I thought happiness is somewhat equal to wealthiness or prestige. Maybe not equal, but a measure of - the wealthier you are, the happy you become. Wrong!

Happiness comes from perspective: you can be happy as long as you want what you have and have what you want; when you stop comparing your car to the neighbours' new car and are glad yours passes the stupid emission tests (with less than 1% of the max! a 12 yo car!); when you don't need to buy the books / DVDs / video games, but you walk nicely to the library and borrow them - for free!

I am not a proponent of frugality, I actually believe there are things in life you need to spend on for good quality (most of the services and the long-time products). I'd rather invest $200 pair of quality comfortable leather shoes which will be with me for years than waste $30 for a plastic pair that will get in the garbage in less than 2 weeks. It's a matter of making the math, in the end :)

What I am for is simplicity and elegance: find the most simple moment and look for the elegance that it can teach you. Take this beautiful petal of orchid: have you ever leaned closely enough and touched it? It is soft and smooth, it has beautiful colouring and a subtle perfume. It matches perfectly the other 5 petals and together they form the most elegant flower that have been born on earth. Wasn't that simple?

There you are - a perfect moment. You don't need 86,400 perfect moments in a day - you need a few, just enough to lift up your spirits and to make you want to search for more.

Here is something to try today: find a perfect moment and bask in it. Remember how you feel. Remember the energy. Tomorrow - add one more moment.

Share with us your moments - and how you found them. I'd love to hear your thoughts!