Am I contented?

Dear Reader, Jealousy, envy, unsatisfied are some of the emotions that I feel occasionally. I just don't have 'enough'! Until I came across this article that I'd like to share with you. Wealth That Can't Be Tallied by Alexander Green

Dear Reader, Today I'm visiting Rancho Santana, a charming resort community on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, near the town of San Juan del Sur. Set on more than two miles of coastline with rolling hills and dramatic cliffs, the reserve attracts expats, investors, surfers, and nature lovers from all over the world. They like the idea of owning a piece of - or at least visiting - one of the most spectacular stretches of coastal land in the world. Gaze out from atop one of the many bluffs on this 2700-acre reserve and you'll see what the coast of California looked like a hundred years ago, pristine and undeveloped. On the drive here from the historic colonial city of Granada, however, you'll see something else. Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America. Approximately half the population lives on the equivalent of less than one dollar a day. The scene is familiar to anyone who has traveled the back roads of Latin America: There are miles of ramshackle homes with dirt floors, no electricity and no running water. Women use rocks to pound the laundry clean in streams that run alongside their homes. Half-dressed children without shoes run through scattered livestock. Men fish with lines attached to pieces of wood, since they have neither rods nor reels. To Western eyes unaccustomed to traveling here, it looks desperately bleak. Yet there is something else here you can't escape noticing. Most of the people seem genuinely happy. Kids play with no less abandon than kids anywhere else. Men and women greet you with a nod, a toothy grin and a pleasant "Buenos Dias." Their eyes smile. They laugh a lot. Larry, an attorney from La Jolla who married a local, told me yesterday about the first time he invited his wife's family over for dinner. There was a terrific rainstorm and since the river was high and her family had no transportation, he was afraid they wouldn't make it. He needn't have worried, he said. He could hear them approaching two blocks away, laughing and singing, covered with mud. Most Americans have difficulty imagining the daily struggle of these people. Yet they aren't miserable. Far from it. "It's true, the poor are genuinely happy here," says my friend Horacio Marquez, an Argentine who has lived and traveled throughout Latin America. "To us, it looks like they have nothing. But they draw tremendous strength from their families, their Catholic faith and their community." It's a sad irony that so many in The Land of Material Comfort suffer from discontent, anxiety and neurosis while the folks here earning a subsistence living off the land and the sea seem relaxed and cheerful. Some will argue that you can't miss what you never had, what you wouldn't even dare to dream. But something more is going on here. The stoic philosopher Epictetus said, "Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly as it does." His student Marcus Aurelius agreed. "The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are." This is not just a practical mindset. For Nicaraguans, it is a way of life. When you can't make the world conform to your desires, your best option is to moderate those desires - and seek contentment within. Happiness, it turns out, is an inside out job. Satisfaction from fulfilling material wants, on the other hand, is always short-lived. This idea was widespread in the ancient world: Buddha in India and the Stoic philosophers in ancient Greece and Rome counseled people to break their emotional attachment to status and material wealth and cultivate an attitude of acceptance instead. To some, this sounds defeatist. But what's the point in railing against circumstances that can't be altered? More often than not, changing your mind is a more effective strategy than changing the world. I don't mean to romanticize the living conditions of these Nicaraguans, incidentally. This is tough living. Literacy rates are low. The infant mortality rate is high. Many Nicaraguans lack access to basic education and essential health care. Still, you can't help but admire the dignity and spirit here. As the British essaying Erich Heller observed, "Be careful how you interpret the world, it is like that." Carpe Diem, Alex Thank you for reading =)