Honesty: A lost Treasure?

Honesty is one of the greatest signs of a person's character. It is too easy to let slide and avoid saying our truthful thoughts to the people we care about. Not behind their backs, to others in a whisper... but staring at their eyes, in private, in a loving manner.

To say not just the bad, the flaws we see, not to humiliate but to motivate, a 'positive criticism' - if that is at all a possibility, after all criticism has always a bitter taste - (On a side note here, we must also be open-minded to accept the same 'positive criticism' from them). We must also recognize, highlight and applaud their good with the same easy we point fingers at their faults.

It can make you, break you, help you to succeed. It can destroy you, exonerate you and even bury you. BUT the thing that it will guarantee to do is to bring peace, harmony, trust, wealth, friendship, peace of mind, but most of all love and respect.

Honesty is not something you just expect to get from others because you believe to be entitled to it. It is something you give to others at the same proportion you expect to receive. Once honesty it is gone in any type of relationship then trust is wounded, and even tough a relationship can still remain, it will always be like trying to put together the pieces of a broken mirror...it might work still, but the image that reflects from it will always be distorted and imperfect.

Many today, have forgotten the importance of it and the 'few' that still honors this trait of a good character are usually labeled 'idiots'. Most people exercise the current 'what is in for me' mentality. The current society of 'immediate satisfaction at all costs' is transforming characters and relationships into something unnecessary and banal.

You can call me a dreamer, but I rather be an 'idiot' than a lost soul in search of a never-ending fantasy life filled with lies, pumped up by TV reality shows to fulfill the emptiness of my own life. Just because 'everybody does it' it does not make it right. That is where the use of common sense and free will should kick in.

Honesty is what comes out and it is what is expected from others. Without the bad I will never be the great human being I am cut out to be. Without losing I will never savor the taste of a sweet victory, without being discriminated I will never enjoy the pleasure of fitting in, without a tear I will never recognize the thrill of a happy smile.

No matter what the weather is on the outside, it will always be sunny on the inside because I know where the truth comes from and no one has the power to diminish it or try to mold me into something else, so they can feel comfortable on their own skin. Like the song said, “Don’t worry, be happy”.

Smile, regardless the tears streaming down your face, there will always be a sunshine shining after a stormy day.

N. Cardoso 07/26/2012

The Road To Happiness

"The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up to it yourself'"

"When I travel on business, I like to talk to the taxi drivers who take me from the airport to my hotel, or to a convention center, or to a restaurant. Taxi drivers are often immigrants with interesting personal histories and unusual cultural backgrounds. I ask them how long they've been in America, how they chose which city to live in, and what they like best about where they live. Of course, I also ask them for advice on good local restaurants and any special attractions they'd recommend to a visitor. I've had some great experiences on my travels, thanks to the advice of taxi drivers!

On one trip about ten years ago, I was making conversation with the taxi driver, asking him my usual questions about how he came to live where he lived. Then I asked him a hypothetical question: "If you could live anywhere in the world—and if money was no object—where would you live?"

Without hesitating even for a second, he replied, "I live in my heart. So it really doesn't matter where my body lives. If I am happy inside, then I live in paradise, no matter where my residence is."

I felt humbled and a little foolish for my question. Of course he was right—happiness is an inside job. He had reminded me of something I already knew, but had forgotten. If you can't find happiness inside yourself, you'll never find it in the outside world, no matter where you move. Wherever you go, there you are. You take yourself with you.

I am grateful for the wisdom of that taxi driver. And I'm grateful for all the wisdom others have shared with me about how to be happy."  by Mac Anderson and BJ Gallagher

          

You don't have to be a graduate from Harvard to know what that cab driver knew....

Until you learn to be happy with what you have and with whoever you are, regardless of any outside circunstance, no one can help you.

You have to search deep down within yourself to realy find the happiness we all strive for. Happiness is not a when and a where, it is a here and now!

Excuses can be made - when I have a bigger house, when I go on vacation, when I get there, when this or that happens...

There is an immense amount of excuses you can create, or just absorb from others to keep you from facing the real problem, however, until you realize that IF happiness was only encoutered on richness and possessions, millions of people around the world wouldn't have the faintest chance to achieve it, yet without any of the riches people in riches nations have, they know, they have the grasp and understanding what happiness really is. It is so simple that in a capitalist world, in a 'what is in for me' mentality, in a life lived vicariously through ridiculous 'reality shows on TV' it scapes, like the fine sand on the beach escapes through your fingers as you try to hold it, through the majority people's understanding.

Happines has no price, but never fool yourself into believing that because it is a free commodity it has no value...it has no price and it is available to all without discrimination not because it has no value but because there is not enough gold, diamond and money in the world tthat could pay the price that is worth.

The pictures on this post are pictures of few places I've lived in and had the opportunity to visit. There are so many different and gorgeous places that I would need a much bigger album to add all of them, however, today, as I look back,  I realize that I have been blessed enough to live and visit few of the most beatiful places in the world but I also realize that I was only partially happy in every place, because I, like many, I was always looking looking for something outside myself, for what was missing, for 'the next big thing', the thrill...

 

 

Now, those places are thousands of miles away from me, maybe one day I will be blessed enough to visit them again, who knows, life is a wonderful adventure, but the happiness and joy I feel inside can't be tainted by anything else.

 

 

No one, and I truly mean no one, have the power to take it away from me.  Even tough bad things, heart breaks, disapointments, eventual failures and life in general is not a 'perfect life' (whatever that might be), even tough I am still searching for an even better part of myself, I know that, in the end, there is only one person that holds the key to my complete happiness, and that person is myself.

N.Cardoso