“All the ice cream in the world!”
Ask a young child what their biggest dream is, and their answer will usually be something like that.
I still remember the first time I saved enough pocket money to buy a whole packet of Pure Butter shortbread biscuits. My absolutely favourite biscuits (possibly my absolutely favourite thing in the world) at that age.
Having that full packet of them to myself, felt like a dream and a dream come true all at once.
Heartbreakingly, after I had eaten less than six of those biscuits (from the packet of twelve) the overdose of sweetness started to turn against me.
I began to feel sick, each extra bite taking me closer to throwing up.
Throwing away the rest of those biscuits was one of the most depressing things I’ve ever done. 🥺😢
Like most of us though, the main thing I learnt from that experience was “Maybe biscuits are not the way to go. Next time I’ll try cheesecake instead.” 😊
“All the ice cream in the world.”
That’s how we start.
As we grow, it changes.
When ice cream fails us, it becomes something else.
All the toys in the world,
All the presents in the world,
All the fun in the world,
All the partying in the world,
All the girls in the world,
All the money in the world.
“If a little is good, more must be better!”
Big Bang Theory – Tv Comedy (It didn’t turn out very well for the person who said it)
We naturally assume the error is in the thing we have chosen to get as much of as possible.
That last thing we tried to get more of didn’t work in making us happy. Probably because that specific thing was a bit childish or a bit immature.
Now that we know more about life, we know what the real thing that will make us happy is. We just need to get as much of this new thing as possible!
Each time it is harder to reach the point where we succeed enough to find out that the result is the same.
A feeling of sickness in our belly and a disgust with this new precious thing we have been trying to get.
And yet, if we look back in our own lives, we can all see the answer for ourselves.
If we search our memories, looking for the moments of greatest happiness in our own personal pasts, we will see it.
A child’s laugh,
A parent’s hug,
A great dinner with friends,
A hand held in love,
A smile of gratitude,
A nod of respect.
The moments we remember having the most happiness, are the moments where we remember sharing happiness with others.
Young children think they are selfish.
However, if they are lucky, they will grow up to learn better.
The thing that gives us the most happiness, can be found by sharing happiness with others.
This is a cute, really old clip from sesame street. 🙂
In other news:
I will be experimenting with changes to the look and feel of the blog over the next few weeks. As I’m getting better at using the wordpress environment, I am bumping into some of the edges of the current template.
If everything looks totally different next time you visit don’t worry.
Hopefully, this will be a case where ‘different’ will mean ‘better’.
Stu