At Whose Expense is Your Happiness?
There was a farmer who lived with his wife in a village near a dense black forest. One day the farmer's wife gave birth to a handsome baby boy.
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Time flew by, and the baby started crawling around the house. He was an elated little boy with a whole world outside for him yet to be discovered.
On a drizzly Monday night, the little boy's mother was serving dinner and his father was taking a nap to reduce the stress after a long tiring work day. The little boy on the other hand, was crawling and rolling on the straw mat. The house was warm and cozy unlike the outside.
After looking around, the woman noticed that her child was not in the house. She was in an abject terror. She looked all over the house in the hopes of finding him, but he wasn't there. She woke her husband with a shaking voice and told him what happened.
They both ran outside bare foot, shouting for their baby's name. They looked in the backyard and every corner around the house. But still he wasn't found.
The farmer told his wife to stay in the house and pray for miracles. She just stood on the door sobbing and cursing her self for leaving the door open. Her eyes were deep red. The farmer took a lamp in his hand and went in to the forest.
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After searching for a few minutes, he found his son in a small circle mud playing and clapping with his small hands. His chubby cheeks were already covered with mud. The farmer ran into the mud, grabbed his son and went back to the house. The farmer's wife was relieved to see her husband holding their baby safe in his hands.
The happy little boy brought a sudden shock to his parents. But he had the time of his life even if it was just for a moment.
Some times we bring grief to others while we are at our happiest moments.
If your happiness comes at the expense of making others grief, then that's not happiness. You need to find a different way to be happy.
I wish many can follow that your closing remark.
But I feel that at some point, we being happy might cause another to be sad even though that's not our intention. That's just life - it's not fair.
It's been quite a while since I've been here. It's nice getting to read your work again.
Thanks so much. I appreciate your comment. And hope everything is fine?
We shouldn't be happy at the expense of others. Our happiness shouldn't make others grief.
But what if the unhappiness of others comes from the jealousy they feel towards you. For example, two people fighting for a job, one wins the job(obviously he'll be happy), the other left in pain. I think at times it's beyond our control. But the one we can control we should.
You are right.. That's a different kind of happiness.. The short story explains the kind of happiness am talking about.
Yea, I've just been quite busy with school lately. I'm back now tho.
This is so deep, I guess as humans sometimes we forget that our happiness might be at the expense of others.
Very profound and gives one good fir thought
I agree with the overall sentiment but I don’t think we are responsible for others happiness either. We do what we can but our body, our future, our life, is our own. We can and probably should do our best to ease others minds but in the end, they’re happiness should not depend on us either…at least from my perspective, we give the most to others when we can find our own happiness first, though at times they can’t accept it because of their own fears and judgement that I don't think we need to carry for them.
I found myself really empathizing with the baby here, and even wrote a story very similar to this one from the baby’s perspective.