Happiness depends on wisdom - Sophocles
This is a quote that I have been considering quite frequently today. My day, for its slowness, did not match my expectation. And when I find myself frustrated or restless my mind wanders. Typically, that wandering will force me to confront the trappings of life in the States that I dearly, dearly miss. Not just the ability to watch Sports Center on the couch in my shorts over a bowl of cereal, but things more substantial. Family, friends, and the ability to be understood and to understand.
But thinking this way also forces me to confront the fact that life is what you make it to be. True, I cannot will myself to be happy all the time. All of us are allowed our days in the rain, so long as they don't interfere with the task of getting on in life. If I were a bit wiser, in those moments when I am down, I could stop and consider how fortunate I am to be here, in Madagascar, now.
For example, the financial crisis and gloomy economy are a only of secondary interest to me. I do not have to worry about rent and utilities and the rising price of fuel. Yes, in many ways, my life is one of luxury and I would do better to remember that from time to time.
Le me close with a simultaneously frustrating and poignant quote from the prairie sage Garrison Keillor.
Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted,
but getting what you have, which once you have it
you may be smart enough to see is what you would've wanted had you known.
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