The husband gifted a new car to his wife for her birthday. He first handed over the keys, then a pouch with all necessary documents, including her driving license, and followed it up with a long hug.
He then offered to take care of the children and asked her to go on a long drive. She thanked him with a kiss and she was gone with her auto-baby. Hardly a kilometre into the drive, she hit a median. She was safe, but the car was dented. She was consumed with guilt, “What will I tell him? How will he take it?” Thoughts and feelings ran amok. The police were quick to arrive at the accident scene. “Can we see your license?” they demanded. Her hands still shivering, she reached for the pouch that her husband had given her.
With tears rolling down her cheeks, as she picked the license from the pouch she noticed a ‘post it’ on it with her husband’s handwriting, “Honey, in case of an accident, please remember, it is you that I love and not the car. Loving you.”
Blessed are those who have understood that they should be loving people and using things, and not loving things and using people.
A scratch on the car makes our blood pressure go up… but we don’t seem to mind a scratch in our heart. I know of a man who broke an artefact by intentionally throwing it on the floor and then remarked, “For eighteen years it has been giving me tension – if it breaks, if it falls down… I thought it was time to show who the boss is and gain some peace of mind.” I know of another person who gave a party because his Mercedes Benz was rammed and jammed in an accident. He explained, “Though the car is completely damaged, nothing happened to me, who was inside the car. Now that I am okay I can buy another car, but if the automobile was intact and I was gone – it wouldn’t have made much sense.”
Our life began with the 60-rupee toy car. When it broke, we cried. Then we upgraded ourselves to the 2000-rupee remote-controlled car. When that got damaged, we wept. Then we were gifted the 20,000 rupee battery-operated car. When that stopped working, we were depressed. Then came the 4-lakh car, after that the 22-lakh SUV, followed by the 86-lakh luxury sedan… And, every time something happened to this machine, whether a scratch or a dent, the mercury of our tensions and worries went up. All in all, it seems our toys have grown, but we haven’t. What we cry for has changed, but the crying is still on. Just that our crying is a lot more sophisticated now. It has many new names like anger, disappointment, frustration, stress, anxiety, etc…
Toys are there to entertain us. Toys have only one purpose: to be useful to us. From your beach house to your SUV to your latest gizmos and everything else… everything exists to make your life more comfortable. You are bigger than every THING you own. You are more precious than every THING you possess. You are more important than every THING that has come into your life.
A toy is just a toy. Buy toys. Buy more and more toys. But give them their rightful place. They are just there to be useful to you, to make your life comfortable and to entertain you. Don’t ever waste another drop of your precious tears for a toy, no matter how dear the toy may be. After all, you are the dearest of them all.
The fact is “We Don’t” and not “We Can’t.”
It does not matter how much we have,
but what really matters is what we do with what we have.
We cannot do much to change what we have, but we can
certainly change the way we use what we have.
A pawn, if used well, will become the queen.
The husband gifted a new car to his wife for her birthday. He first handed over the keys, then a pouch with all necessary documents, including her driving license, and followed it up with a long hug.
He then offered to take care of the children and asked her to go on a long drive. She thanked him with a kiss and she was gone with her auto-baby. Hardly a kilometre into the drive, she hit a median. She was safe, but the car was dented. She was consumed with guilt, “What will I tell him? How will he take it?” Thoughts and feelings ran amok. The police were quick to arrive at the accident scene. “Can we see your license?” they demanded. Her hands still shivering, she reached for the pouch that her husband had given her.
With tears rolling down her cheeks, as she picked the license from the pouch she noticed a ‘post it’ on it with her husband’s handwriting, “Honey, in case of an accident, please remember, it is you that I love and not the car. Loving you.”
Blessed are those who have understood that they should be loving people and using things, and not loving things and using people.
A scratch on the car makes our blood pressure go up… but we don’t seem to mind a scratch in our heart. I know of a man who broke an artefact by intentionally throwing it on the floor and then remarked, “For eighteen years it has been giving me tension – if it breaks, if it falls down… I thought it was time to show who the boss is and gain some peace of mind.” I know of another person who gave a party because his Mercedes Benz was rammed and jammed in an accident. He explained, “Though the car is completely damaged, nothing happened to me, who was inside the car. Now that I am okay I can buy another car, but if the automobile was intact and I was gone – it wouldn’t have made much sense.”
Our life began with the 60-rupee toy car. When it broke, we cried. Then we upgraded ourselves to the 2000-rupee remote-controlled car. When that got damaged, we wept. Then we were gifted the 20,000 rupee battery-operated car. When that stopped working, we were depressed. Then came the 4-lakh car, after that the 22-lakh SUV, followed by the 86-lakh luxury sedan… And, every time something happened to this machine, whether a scratch or a dent, the mercury of our tensions and worries went up. All in all, it seems our toys have grown, but we haven’t. What we cry for has changed, but the crying is still on. Just that our crying is a lot more sophisticated now. It has many new names like anger, disappointment, frustration, stress, anxiety, etc…
Toys are there to entertain us. Toys have only one purpose: to be useful to us. From your beach house to your SUV to your latest gizmos and everything else… everything exists to make your life more comfortable. You are bigger than every THING you own. You are more precious than every THING you possess. You are more important than every THING that has come into your life.
A toy is just a toy. Buy toys. Buy more and more toys. But give them their rightful place. They are just there to be useful to you, to make your life comfortable and to entertain you. Don’t ever waste another drop of your precious tears for a toy, no matter how dear the toy may be. After all, you are the dearest of them all.
The fact is “We Don’t” and not “We Can’t.”
It does not matter how much we have,
but what really matters is what we do with what we have.
We cannot do much to change what we have, but we can
certainly change the way we use what we have.
A pawn, if used well, will become the queen.