Years ago I had the great fortune of visiting Nepal. I spent several weeks volunteering for 9 amazing kids at an orphanage in a city called Chitwan, about 100 miles southwest of Kathmandu. It wasn't uncommon for the thermometer to hit 110 degrees or to see elephants casually walking down the street. It was like no place I'd ever seen.
The volunteers were also given downtime. When I wasn't helping kids with homework or preparing meals I'd take a stroll through the National Park, which was just a few hundred yards away.
One afternoon, as I sat looking out onto the water a gentlemen asked where I was from. We started talking and before long were waxing philosophy about life and what it means to be happy.
"Be happy your life now," he said repeatedly in his thick accent. His words were poignant but it took years for me to really appreciate what his simple phrase meant.
Looking back, I'm convinced he was trying to tell me the search for enlightenment is a futile one. That all we need to do is open our eyes. What we're looking for is already before us. He was encouraging me to be happy -- unreasonably so without searching for a reason. To simply be joyful and allow my contentment to be greater than my desires.
I'm still working on it but his simple words always have a way of keeping me in check.
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