Normally I am not allowed to post my reports on this blog, but this one if not so much a report as a blog. I wrote it a short while ago (still on The Importance of Living) and I put it on my other blog- but I think it should go on this one too as it is more... thoughts than anything else. Here it is.
This chapter of the book was just these 33 moments of
happiness… they were written by a man and his friend when they got stuck in a
temple for 10 days due to bad weather. While they take up most of the paper, I
included them all because I think they are a great example of, once again, the
little things in life and how important and significant they are. I am going to
include these 33 moments of happiness, but I am also going to write my own 33
and ALSO: I challenge my readers to make a list of 33 little things that make
them happy and leave it in a comment below.
1)
Jumping barefoot into rain puddles while it is
thundering and lightning out.
2) Walking in the woods on a cold day in the fall, listening to the birds and
other animals.
3) Finding a radio station in the car that plays non-stop techno music.
4) Long, deep talks with Dad when I get depressed or feel lonely.
5) Talking to my friends and feeling their support and knowing that they care
about me.
6) Turning somersaults in the cold lake water with my sister during the summer.
7) Burning incense outside and sitting on my rock, thinking about everything.
8) Sitting quietly in the living room with my family, watching the wood stove
fire burn out.
9) Staying up until 1:00 playing the name game with my family.
10) The feeling of relief after beating a hard boss in a game.
11) The clarity that comes from writing emotional poetry.
12) Walking along the beach with my dad and sister, collecting seashells.
13) Attempting to tackle my mom when I was little, and never succeeding.
14) Spinning in a circle for five minutes, then collapsing and watching the
ceiling spin.
15) Feeling shivers crawl up my spine while reading a book.
16) Looking at my best friend and knowing that we are thinking the same thing.
17) The first sip of a cold drink on a hot day in summer.
18) The taunting smell of pizza as you struggle through a hard workout in
karate.
19) Whirlpool baths in the Jacuzzi after a hard black belt test.
20) The feeling of pride and accomplishment that comes after a black belt test.
21) Finishing the icing on a cake and seeing that it is completely smooth, with
no ridges.
22) Watching others smile and enjoy the food you made.
23) Talking to my dog, knowing that he doesn’t judge me and will never tell my
secrets.
24) Hugs from my sister when I feel down.
25) Going to an empty park and being able to do whatever you want.
26) Picnics in the woods during the summer.
27) Listening to a song that describes my mood perfectly.
28) When I let my hair down after karate.
29) Watching my dog dive after a stick and going underwater.
30) Going through my memory box on nights when I can’t sleep.
31) The mini heart-attack you have right before a huge drop on a roller
coaster.
32) Hugging my friends when they get down or upset.
33) When my sister flipped someone off at the mall and made me laugh…
Ah, is this not
happiness?
Those are my 33 moments of happiness… when you write your
33, keep in mind that it can be little things OR big… but if you use a lot of
big things, you are going to have a harder time deciphering the importance of
the little things. Most of mine were little, but I threw in a couple of big
things too. Just remember not to base your life and its worth off of “big”
things because they so rarely happen… take time to look for the small joys in
life and enjoy those instead. Then, when something big actually does come
around it will make it that much more special, because instead of LOOKING for
the big you waited, took your time, and enjoyed the little things.
Below are the original 33:
1. It is a hot day in June when the sun hangs still in the
sky and there is not a whiff of wind in the air, nor a trace of clouds; the
front and back yards are hot like an oven and not a single bird dares to fly
about. Perspiration flows down my whole body in little rivulets. There is the
noonday meal before me, but I cannot take it for the sheer heat. I ask for a
mat to spread on the ground and lie down, but the mat is wet with moisture and
flies swarm about to rest on my nose and refuse to be driven away. Just at this
moment when I am completely helpless, suddenly there is a rumbling of thunder
and big sheets of black clouds overcast the sky and come majestically on like a
great army advancing to battle. Rain-water begins to pour down from the eaves
like a cataract. The perspiration stops. The clamminess of the ground is gone.
All flies disappear to hide themselves and I can eat my rice. Ah, is this not
happiness?
2. A friend, one I have not seen for ten years, suddenly
arrives at sunset. I open the door to receive him, and without asking whether
he came by boat or by land, and without bidding him to sit on the bed or the
couch, I go to the inner chamber and ask my wife: “Have you got a gallon of
wine like Su Tungp’o's wife?” My wife gladly takes out her gold hairpin to sell
it. I calculate it will last us three days. Ah, is this not happiness?
3. I am sitting alone in an empty room and I am just getting
annoyed at a little mouse at the head of my bed, and wondering what that little
rustling sound signifies – what article of mine he is biting or what volume of
my books he is eating up. While I am in this state of mind and don’t know what
to do, I suddenly see a ferocious-looking cat, wagging its tail and staring
with its wide-open eyes, as if it were looking at something. I hold my breath
and wait a moment, keeping perfectly still, and suddenly with a little sound
the mouse disappears like a whiff of wind. Ah, is this not happiness?
4. I have pulled out the hait’ang and chiching (flowering
trees) in front of my studio, and have just planted ten or twenty green banana
trees there. Ah, is this not happiness?
5. I am drinking with some romantic friends on a spring
night and am just half intoxicated, finding it difficult to stop drinking and
equally difficult to go on. An understanding boy servant at the side suddenly
brings in a package of big fire-crackers, about a dozen in number, and I rise
from the table and go and fire them off. The smell of sulphur assails my
nostrils and enters my brain and I feel comfortable all over my body. Ah, is
this not happiness?
6. I am walking in the street and see two poor rascals
engaged in a hot argument of words with their faces flushed and their eyes
staring with anger as if they were mortal enemies, and yet they still pretend
to be ceremonious to each other, raising their arms and bending their waists in
salute, and still using the most polished language of thou and thee and
wherefore and is it not so? The flow of words is interminable. Suddenly there
appears a big husky fellow swinging his arms and coming up to them, and with a
shout tells them to disperse. Ah, is this not happiness?
7. To hear our children recite the classics so fluently,
like the sound of water pouring from a vase. Ah, is this not happiness?
8. Having nothing to do after a meal I go to the shops and
take a fancy to a little thing. After bargaining for some time, we still haggle
about a small difference, but the shop-boy still refuses to sell it. Then I
take out a little thing from my sleeve, which is worth about the same thing as
the difference and throw it at the boy. The boy suddenly smiles and bows
courteously saying, “Oh, you are too generous!” Ah, is this not happiness?
9. I have nothing to do after a meal and try to go through
the things in some old trunks. I see there are dozens of IOUs from people who
owe my family money. Some of them are dead and some still living, but in any
case there is no hope of their returning the money. Behind people’s backs I put
them together in a pile and make a bonfire of them, and I look up to the sky
and see the last trace of smoke disappear. Ah, is this not happiness?
10. It is a summer's day. I go bareheaded and barefooted,
holding a parasol, to watch young people singing Soochow fol-songs while
treading the water-wheel. The water comes up over the wheel in a gushing
torrent like molten silver or melting snow. Ah, is this not happiness?
11. I wake up in the morning and seem to hear someone in the
house sighing and saying that last night someone died. I immediately ask to
find out who it is, and learn that it is the sharpest, most calculating fellow
in town. Ah, is this not happiness?
12. I get up early on a summer morning and see people sawing
a large bamboo pole under a mat-shed, to be used as a water-pipe. Ah, is this
not happiness?
13. It has been raining for a whole month and I lie in bed
in the morning like one drunk or ill, refusing to get up. Suddenly I hear a
chorus of birds announcing a clear day. Quickly I pull aside the curtain, push
open a window and see the beautiful sun shining and glistening and the forest
looks like it's having a bath. Ah, is this not happiness?
14. At night I seem to hear someone thinking of me in the
distance. The next day I go to call on him. I enter his door and look about his
room and see that this person is sitting at his desk, facing south, reading a
document. He sees me, nods quietly and pulls me by the sleeve to make me sit
down, saying, “Since you are here, come and look at this.” And we laugh and
enjoy ourselves until the shadows on the walls have disappeared. He is feeling
hungry himself and slowly asks me, “Are you hungry, too?" Ah, is this not
happiness?
15. Without any serious intention of building a house of my
own, I happened, nevertheless, to start building one because a little sum had
unexpectedly come my way. From that day on, every morning and every night, I
was told that I needed to buy timber and stone and tiles and bricks and mortar
and nails. And I explored and exhausted every avenue of getting some money, all
on account of this house, until I got sort of resigned to this state of things.
One day, finally, the house is completed, the walls have been whitewashed and
the floors swept clean; the paper windows have been pasted and scrolls and
paintings are hung up on the walls. All the workmen have left, and my friends
have arrived, sitting on different couches in order. Ah, is this not happiness?
16. I am drinking on a winter’s night, and suddenly note
that the night has turned extremely cold. I push open the window and see that
snowflakes come down the size of a palm and there are already three or four
inches of snow on the ground. Ah, is this not happiness?
17. To cut with a sharp knife a bright green water-melon on
a big scarlet plate of a summer afternoon. Ah, is this not happiness?
18. I have long wanted to become a monk, but was worried
because I would not be permitted to eat meat. If, then, I could be permitted to
eat meat publicly, why, then I could heat a basin of hot water, and with the
help of a sharper razor, shave my head clean in a summer month! Ah, is this not
happiness?
19. To keep three or four spots of eczema in a private part
of my body and now and then to scald or bathe it with hot water behind closed
doors. Ah, is this not happiness?
20. To find accidentally a handwritten letter of some old
friend in a trunk. Ah, is this not happiness?
21. A poor scholar comes to borrow money from me, but is shy
about mentioning the topic, and so he allows the conversation to drift along on
other topics. I see his uncomfortable situation, pull him aside to a place
where we are alone and ask him how much he needs. Then I go inside and give him
the sum and after having done this, I ask him: “Must you go immediately to
settle this matter or can you stay awhile and have a drink with me?” Ah, is
this not happiness?
22. I am sitting in a small boat. There is a beautiful wind
in our favour, but our boat has no sails. Suddenly there appears a big lorcha (tropical fish), coming
along as fast as the wind. I try to hook on to the lorcha in the hope of catching on to it, and unexpectedly
the hook does catch. Then I throw over a rope and we are towed along and I
begin to sing the lines of Tu Fu: “The green makes me feel tender towards the
peaks, and the red tells me there are oranges.” And we break out in joyous
laughter. Ah, is this not happiness?
23. I have long been looking for a house to share with a
friend but have not been able to find a suitable one. Suddenly, someone brings
news that there is a house somewhere, not too big, but with only about a dozen
rooms, and that it faces a big river with beautiful green trees around. I ask
this man to stay for supper, and after the supper we go over together to have a
look, having no idea what the house is like. Entering the gate, I see that
there is a large vacant lot, and I say to myself, “I shall not have to worry
about the supply of vegetables and melons henceforth.” Ah, is this not
happiness?
24. A traveller returns home after a long journey, and he
sees the old city gate and hears the women and children on both banks of the
river talking in his own dialect. Ah, is this not happiness?
25. When a good piece of old porcelain is broken, you know
there is no hope of repairing it. The more you turn it about and look at it,
the more you are exasperated. I then hand it to the cook, and give orders that
he shall never let that broken porcelain bowl come within my sight again. Ah,
is this not happiness?
26. I am not a saint, and am therefore not without sin. In
the night I did something wrong and I get up in the morning and feel extremely
ill at ease about it. Suddenly I remember what is taught by Buddhism, that not
to cover one’s sins is the same as repentance. So then I begin to tell my sin
to the entire company around, whether they are strangers or my old friends. Ah,
is this not happiness?
27. To watch someone writing big characters a foot high. Ah,
is this not happiness?
28. To open the window and let a wasp out from the room. Ah,
is this not happiness?
29. A magistrate orders the beating of the drum and calls it
a day. Ah, is this not happiness?
30. To see someone’s kite-line broken. Ah, is this not
happiness?
31. To see a wild prairie fire. Ah, is this not happiness?
32. To have just finished repaying all one’s debts. Ah, is
this not happiness?
33. To read the Story of Curly-Beard (who gave up his house
to a pair of eloping lovers then disappeared). Ah, is this not happiness?
