Two things implanted on my mind yesterday. It was a quiet day and I was feeling lazy and reflective. My son called to say he had booked a tee at the golf course.
We would have been better staying quiet and reflective. The quality of golf we played was to say the very least mediocre. MY excuse was that I had not had a club in my hands for the two months I was in France so I had an excuse. I know that the real trouble was that we were both in fact trying far too hard to hit good shots. It was only when I began to think this in the great scheme of life and death was not important that the golf got better.
On my way home I saw a Young girl with her parents. She was carrying a ballon and her face was full of smiles and joy. She was looking up at the balloon as it twisted and turned on the end of the string she was holding firmly.
This reminded me of a story I heard some years ago.
A group of 50 people were attending a seminar.
The speaker stopped and started giving each person a balloon. Each one was asked to write his/her name on it using a marker pen. Then all the balloons were collected and put into a small adjoining room.
The attendees were let in that room and asked to find the balloon which had their name written, within 5 minutes.
Everyone was frantically searching for their name, pushing, colliding with each other, all trying so very hard to find their balloon. It was utter chaos. A bit like my golf.
After about five minutes of this one or two had managed to find their balloon.
The speaker then said that each person was to go and collect one balloon and give it to the person whose name was written on it and on the label each person was wearing. Within minutes everybody had their balloon.
The speaker then told the reassembled group: " This is exactly what is happening in our lives. We are all frantically looking for happiness and the meaning of life, none of us knowing where to find it. Our happiness its in the happiness of other people. Give them happiness and you will find your own
And this is as close as it gets to the purpose of life.
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