Reflections

Once there was a king
who had presented his daughter, the princess, with a beautiful diamond
necklace. The necklace was stolen and his people in the kingdom
searched everywhere but could not find it. Some said a bird might have
stolen it. The king then asked them all to search for it and put a reward for $50,000 for anyone who found it.

One
day a clerk was walking home along a river next to an industrial area.
This river was completely polluted, filthy and smelly. As he was
walking, the clerk saw a shimmering in the river and when he looked, he
saw the diamond necklace. He decided to try and catch it so that he
could get the $50,000 reward. He put his hand in the filthy, dirty
river and grabbed at the necklace, but some how missed it and didn't
catch it. He took his hand out and looked again and the necklace was
still there. He tried again, this time he walked in the river and
dirtied his pants in the filthy river and put his whole arm in to catch
the necklace. But strangely, he still missed the necklace! He came out
and started walking away, feeling depressed.

Then
again he saw the necklace, right there. This time he was determined to
get it, no matter what. He decided to plunge into the river, although
it was a disgusting thing to do as the river was polluted, and his
whole body would become filthy. He plunged in, and searched everywhere
for the necklace and yet he failed. This time he was really bewildered
and came out feeling very depressed that he could not get the necklace
that would get him $50,000.

Just
then a saint who was walking by, saw him, and asked him what was the
matter. The clerk didn't want to share the secret with the saint,
thinking the saint might take the necklace for himself, so he refused
to tell the saint anything. But the saint could see this man was
troubled and being compassionate, again asked the clerk to tell him the
problem and promised that he would not tell anyone about it. The clerk
mustered some courage and decided to put some faith in the saint. He
told the saint about the necklace and how he tried and tried to catch
it, but kept failing. The saint then told him that perhaps he should
try looking upward, toward the branches of the tree, instead of in the
filthy river. The clerk looked up and true enough, the necklace was
dangling on the branch of a tree. He had been trying to capture a mere
reflection of the real necklace all this time.

Moral
of the story: material happiness is just like the filthy, polluted
river; because it is a mere reflection of real happiness.

We
can never achieve the happiness we are looking for no matter how hard
we endeavor in material life. Instead we should look upwards, toward
our higher power, who is the source of real happiness, and stop chasing
after the reflection of this happiness in the material world. This
spiritual happiness is the only thing that can satisfy us completely.

~unknown~

How
many of us search for happiness in reflections or wait for someone to
give it to us like a gift. Happiness can only be found within as you
are reaching out to others. There is no quick fix just like there is no
miracle diet, it is a choice! I choose to be happy that doesn't mean my
days are perfect it just means I choose how I want to deal with them. I
don't want to spend my life waiting to lose weight, waiting to become
beautiful, waiting on someone to love me so that I can be happy. I want
to choose happiness for myself. I want to reach out grab it and say
hold on to your lug nuts because we are going for a ride (LOL)Today I
no longer chase reflections.