Time vs. Happiness

This is all about a children's book I stumbled upon awhile ago at my favorite second-hand bookshop. (Yes, I'm a huge fan of second hand bookstores.) Well, the title caught my eye because just about a week ago, me and my moon sister Rhio posted on our blog about our personalities wherein we described ourselves - her as  a Gypsy, and me as a Traveler. So when I saw this book - which is by the way titled as "The Traveler" - I took it as a sign from the universe (and in case you're wondering - yes we are huge, HUGE believers on signs, fate and destiny. Don't judge.) and picked it up immediately without reading the synopsis because yeah, I also like to live dangerously. haha! :P As soon as I got home, I read it and got goosebumps in an instant. 

Basically, it's all about a kid named Charlie who was at first contented with his life at home. He had family, friends, a pretty friend and his dog. They all loved him. Everybody loved him. But the problem was, he felt that he was wasting his time because nothing felt perfect at home. Because even though he knew that they all loved him, they weren't perfect. His parents made him do chores, his friends sometimes broke his toys and so on, and so forth. So he decided that he'd leave home to find that "something perfect" to spend all his time on. He packed his suitcase, stuffed it with all of his precious time then said his goodbyes and off he went. 

Charlie packing all his precious time in his suitcase

He traveled far, far away, and on all the places that he went, he would always find something that will make that place imperfect. 

Time flew past and he grew old and weary, so he decided to make his way home. When he got there, he met his pretty friend and told her that he finally decided to spend all his time there with them. The problem though was when he opened his suitcase, all he had left was... 

"one, square mushy month" 

He felt dejected, but his pretty friend lead him inside to their circle of friends. They talked about how they spent their time, how Charlie didn't spend his time, shared jokes, and they laughed together. 

Until the month came to an end... 

"And as Charlie spent his final itsy-bitsy 

seconds on his friends, 

he was loved. 

He loved. 

It may not have been perfect...

but he was happy. :')

(p.s. all of the illustrations are taken from the book.)

****

I guess you're wondering why I had goosebumps. If you are, check out my first post (also titled The Traveler). I swear, I only learned about this book after we posted our story. Coincidence? I think not. A message from the universe? Most probably.

I love how a simple children's story could put a huge dent in your way of thinking. It may only seem simple at first (given that it's just a 42-page storybook and most of the pages were occupied by illustrations) but it packed a huge amount of mind boggling thoughts to ponder on. See, Charlie lived an ordinary life. He had everything he needed, but he was not contented. He wanted everything to be perfect and to be special, for him to think that it's something worthy to spend his precious time on. This made me realize that in actuality, you are wasting more time in waiting for that one perfect moment to happen, instead of just enjoying everything that you have right now.  If you want to be happy in life, look for the things that could make you happy right at this moment, and not for "what could possibly make you happy in the future." Come to think of it, humans are fickle minded. What we thought could make us happy now IF ONLY we have it, could make us miserable tomorrow WHEN we have it. Truthfully, if you spend your time just waiting for that one perfect moment, you would only keep yourself from being happy. You'll be miserable. But you shouldn't be. 

Happiness is everywhere. 

You just only have to learn to stop, look and listen for it. It doesn't matter if it's something shallow, at least it made you happy. Happiness isn't about receiving something special or over-the-top. It isn't about how much money you have or how many countries you've been to or how many presents you received on your birthday. These things could be part of it, but these aren't everything. 

Happiness is as simple as looking at what's in front of you and appreciating it for what it is without any expectations. By really, really looking at it and making it special  in your own way. 

I know life is not all unicorns and rainbows. Sometimes there are witches and Grinch-es waiting to steal your Christmas. It doesn't matter though. Because in the end, happiness would always be yours if you choose it. 

Let me share with you a list of the things that never fail to make me happy everyday:

1. I was able to wake up for another day. - This is one of the most underrated of all the things that we usually take for granted. Seriously? Won't you be glad to be given another chance to live, even just to make yourself look stupid and act like an idiot again. ;)
2. Meal time with my family. - My family isn't perfect, we always butt heads with each other. But if there's one thing I wouldn't regret, it's the time I spend with them. Long hours spent on the table, sharing stories, arguing, making jokes, laughing out loud. We sometimes find ourselves sitting there for a long, long time before we realize that it was almost time to start preparing for the next meal. It's always, ALWAYS a time well spent for me.
3. The looks on our dogs' eyes whenever I play with them. Their puppy-eyed looks gets me every-freaking-time. You know that they love you even if you leave them for hours because it doesn't matter to them just as long as you come back. 
4. Spend time window shopping for books. I swear, I could spend lo~~~ng hours on a bookstore just by browsing rows and rows and rows of books, sniffing the pages of both the old and the new and arguing with myself that I don't need a new book. Sometimes I win, but most of the time, I find myself going back the next day to purchase the book that I refused the day before.
5. The DJ playing my favorite song on the radio. I don't care if we have MP3s now that you could download anytime. Because this girl, grew up in a time where the only chance you'd get to hear your favorite song was a. buy the album (that is if you have the money, which I didn't) b. wait for it on MTV (back when they were still playing music videos) c. wait for the DJ to include it on their playlist, and d. (the most exciting one) call the radio station a thousand times until you could squeeze in the line and ask the DJ to play it specially for you. ;)
6. Caffeine-and-sugar-induced-coma. 'nuff said
7. Bedtime. To cuddle with my current read under the comfort of my sheets and a cup of chamomile tea on my bedside after a long and busy day. Aaaaahh...this is life.

There goes my list. How about you? Why don't you also try to make a list of uncomplicated things that make you happy. Wish for things that you want, but appreciate first what you have. :)

"Living and loving is a time well spent." - Daren Simkin, The Traveler