A MAN went on a journey to find happiness. Needless to say he traveled far and wide, climbed mountains and crossed oceans. Needless to say he did not find happiness and he grew old and yes, weary and was about to give up. He sat by a roadside, spent and thirsty and hungry but most of all desperate.
In his younger days he was sure that he would find happiness. But no. He stood up and saw an old man. The old man whispered to him, “Pick up some stones and two miles from here you will find a stream. Dip those stones and take them out of the water, then and there will you find happiness and despair.” Intrigued by the old man, he picked up some stones and walked towards the stream. He dipped the stones and when he had taken them out, true enough he was happy and desperate because the stones had turned to clear to pure diamonds.
Regret sometimes is not what we do. More often it is what we do not do. The what ifs in our lives hang like painful reminders. What if I had done this or that. And it is a totally useless thing to regret because it has happened or will never happen because of the choices we took or did not take.
I have made some tough decisions in my life and it scared me because I was going to give up some things that were easy and familiar. But things have a way of showing themselves and I know that the major decisions I have made have been all right. No regrets, just a lot of patience. And faith.
It is difficult to be what you are not. It is difficult to be who you are not. If you choose to be that you will find emptiness in your soul. A void that can never be filled. You will end up a phantom. And there are many phantoms nowadays that sometimes we cannot recognize them. But the tragedy is those who are phantoms know they are even if they deny with jewelry and cars. The truly content do not need contentment. The lost ones, the regretful ones thrash in the roadways seeking the roads they abandoned for convenience.
How do we know our paths? Our dreams? There is a long answer and a short answer. Let me give you the short one. How will you know? Easy. You will just know. Life is simple, really. You just know. The complicated things are not the way. They never were. Silence is the way, not loudness. Kindness, not brute strength is the manner. That is true for all.
Seek your path, your gentle path, because that will always lead you to who and what you are. The rest is just noise and madness.
Your diamonds are not in your hands.