Accepting Changes and valuing our Happiness

Today I have a topic on my mind which again and again appears in life: change. Change in itself and the ability as well as the necessity to accept it.

I like to compare life with weather sometimes. Three days ago, we still had spring weather here, with cool evenings and cool to cold nights and mornings. The days were already warm but the warmth was one that built up over hours. It changed, quite suddenly as is usual here, and now summer is here. We get up in the morning and once the sun comes out, it is warm. In midday, it is too hot to be outside. The evenings and nights remain warm. It is not only the heat though – you can smell summer!

Changes in life can come quickly, just like changes in the weather. The biggest thing is: you cannot do anything about it! You just have to accept it. A change in weather can mean that it is too hot, too cold or too wet to do what you wanted to do – and you cannot change it! You can only decide whether you would like to let this spoil your happiness or not. I have seen so often that people get very annoyed about the wrong weather – and sometimes it is as though the weather cannot actually be right!

The same is true with the circumstances of your life! It is your choice how you deal with the changes that come to you from outside. If you want to get upset about it, you are free to do so. You can cry, be sad, be angry but usually the only thing you achieve is that you lose your happiness. And honestly, my happiness is worth so much to me that I don’t want to lose it to a change.

A lot of travelers in India tell us that they were surprised about one thing: people are so poor but at the same time so happy!

Yes, happiness doesn’t depend on money. You cannot buy it with money and I have seen many rich people who were very unhappy while others who had nearly nothing were much happier! And I believe that the reason for this happiness which you can find a lot in India is the ability to accept.

I think Indians have a nature that makes it easy to accept a change and be happy due to this acceptance. I also believe that we should learn from whatever good we see along our path of life – and if we can learn this from India’s poor, I think we should!

So take the weather as it comes, accept it and be happy!