Rich Or Poor ??

Today, I like to recollect an old story, a story I quite like. It goes like this.

- - -

One day …

The father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son : How was the trip?

The son replied : It was great, Dad.

“Did you see how poor people live?”, the father asked.

“Oh yeah.”, said the son.

“So, tell me, what you learned from the trip?”, asked the father.

The son answered :

I saw that we have one dog and they had four.We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end…

…We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond…

…We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them.

The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.”

Isn't perspective a wonderful thing?
Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.

- - -

Maybe this little story leads us to re-look at what is being rich and what is being poor.

Of course, if I were to say being "wealthy" is not just measured in terms of our worldly-materialistic-possession, many people may say I'm just a 酸葡萄. Haha..

But I do see poor people feeling very rich. And I do observe rich people feeling very poor.

What do I mean?

我倒是觉得〈贫〉与〈富〉也是一种心态。

一个家境较贫的人，他若懂得珍惜所拥有的、乐意与人分享自己所拥有的、能觉得知足常乐，愿意付出但无非分之想…
那其实不就是一种很〈富裕〉的感觉吗？

换言之…
一个大富豪，他虽然家财万贯，但却不懂得乐善好施、眼里有高没有低、心里总是觉得还不够、一直还想多要一些…
那其实不就是一种很〈贫穷〉的感觉吗？

哈哈。。
So, everyone of us can choose to lead a rich life. As rich as you wanna be.
在心理上是可能的。

不要说我们穷。
先问问我们的心理穷不穷。