I was thinking why ‘contentment’ is such a hard thing to understand and to explain. Why telling someone and hearing a person say ‘I am contented’ leaves more questions than clarity. Why saying ‘Be happy with what you have’ leaves such a sour taste.
After some search around the world, I kind of think that maybe because we have to be contented with what we have. What if we no longer have what we have?
If there is unconditional love, then there must be unconditional contentment. Unconditional love is loving without any conditions, or expecting any thing in return. And, so unconditional contentment is being contented without the condition of a stable job, a house, a reserve cash in the bank.
Of course, there is always the aim to reach a certain stability in our life. But once we reach that level of comfort zone that we can finally say I am ‘comfortable and contented,’ can you still imagine being contented getting off that comfort zone? I guess why it is hard to really feel true contentment because though we no longer desire for more material things, more money, more stable job, but we are busy guarding/maintaining the stable job, the house, and the reserve cash from falling off. We are always worried how one silly act of us can topple off the stable job, the reserved cash. It is because once we reach our comfort zone, it will already be scary to get down out of it.
My point is that contentment should be anchored on our capability, on our faith on ourselves that we can achieve things so that in case you lose the things you work hard for, you know that you can always get them back. If you were able to get a job, then no reason to over worry losing it because you have done it before. No reason why you cannot get a job again. If you lose your reserved cash, then no reason why it will not be brought back. Again and again, I can probably easily say that because I eat 3 times a day.
So sometimes I always find myself biting my lips from saying ‘be happy with what you have’ when cheering up someone feeling low. Because I feel that there is no reason for us not to be happy with the things we do not have or things we will lose.