Having

Having what you need will give you contentment.

Having what you want will only make you want more.

Sounds simple. Easy. But it’s true. From the sages of old to modern prophets of today, the words ring true.
Think for a minute without judging according to your own mental state or how the world has programmed you to be. Think in a quiet moment when there are no distractions to pull you away from your thoughts.

Now.

Having what you need is everything. If you have enough to eat then your belly is full. If you have shelter and those who care for you, then you have a home. If you have a fire, you are warm. If you have light, you can see. If you have work then you can provide. Enough. Enough will bring you contentment if you allow it to satisfy you — and it should.

Now.

You say you want to be prepared. A big bank account will prepare you for any catastrophe. Listen. No one can say when the next personal or global crisis will occur. No one can predict when a crippling illness will strike, when your bank account will be wiped clean, when you will struggle to make ends meet. No one can see the future and say what will happen or what will not. We live on the precipice, day to day, basically at the universe’s whim. I can bear witness to that fact. I have had everything material and have had everything material taken away. I had seen one who I love go through fugue states, traveling mentally to places where no one could reach him. I have seen a loved one in the grips of a devastating disease and I have felt powerless, have felt the fear of losing my life, of not knowing where the next moment, let alone the next day would take me.

But I do know this. No one can guarantee that the next moment will be there. Think about that. No one can guarantee or even know that the next moment will be there. For you. For the world. For the universe. We are all subject to powers that are out of our control.

So that brings us to having and needing.

Needing is a never ending pit of desires. I will be happy once I have this. That made me happy for awhile, now if I only had this other thing I’ll be happy or happier. No. That wasn’t it. If I take this trip, save this money, fill this bank account, buy this car (house, land,dress, suit, shoes…. you fill in the blank here), I’ll be happy.

That need to have more and more is wanting and wanting and needing are going to keep you awake at night thinking of how you need even more.

We are told we need more to survive, exist, find happiness and fulfillment. We believe it. We work longer hours, sleep less, fret more, worry because all our charge accounts are driven to the limit and we need to make more to pay for whatever else we need that’s the next step on the ladder to more.

If success were happiness, if that need to have more was happiness, then why are there so many unhappy people who have all that and more? Why do rock stars and movie icons fall into deep depressions and some even take their lives? We’re told it’s a chemical imbalance that we can’t control. Then we’re told we need drugs to combat that, and that those drugs might cause side effects that can be counteracted by another drug. Sometimes we’re told that when we take this drug for depression, it might lead to thoughts of — yep you know the ads — to thoughts of suicide! Maybe some depression is caused by the need to have and the need to have more — of being dissatisfied with something inside yourself that no drug or bank account will ever cure.

We need to live within our limits and find contentment there. Whatever comes next will be the result of our efforts to grow. Buying things will never make us happy or content with ourselves. Having what we need is a blessing in and of itself. Having what we want … well that’s a different sort of beast that no matter how much you feed will never be full.

Be content with what you have now. Take a moment and think of the things you do have and not those that you do not.

You’ll find that if you have shelter and food and love about you — you are wealthy indeed. Everything else is just additional comfort that isn’t necessary to be content.

Humans are, especially now,bombarded with ads that tell them what they must have to be happy. Certainly a new car will make you happy. You can travel and see the world and that will make you happy. If you buy a house using this new mortgage rate you certainly will be happy. The same goes for the new brand of beer, a weight loss program, some drugs to keep age at bay, a face lift, a spa, a gym membership, a new sofa, and it goes on and on and on. Fill in the blanks. You can fill in the blanks all day, but if you are not content with the idea that right now you have all you really NEED to be happy — then you are living at the bottom of a never ending pit of addiction that you will never escape.

There are many who do not have the necessary ingredients to be content. There are those who live on the street, displaced for whatever reason from warm homes, without the love of friends or family to help them through rough times. There are those, many of them children, who do not have one meal a day, let alone the veritable feasts we have comparatively. There are those who are sick and can’t afford medical care of any kind. Those are the kinds of basic NEEDS that should be satisfied. Everything else is unnecessary and frivolous.

Give a thought and a prayer to those who really are in ‘need’.

You are richer than you think.

Many of us have what we need, not only to survive but to live comfortable lives. Needing more than that is icing on the cake. Needing more and more and more with the idea that the next trip, car, technological wonder will make us happy and content — is dictated by our peers and advertising geniuses who make lots of money from the season of our discontent.

Be happy with what you have and know that you have what you need to be content.

Wanting more in order to be happy, well, that’s an entirely other thing.

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