Writing from Carcassonne

You get to notice an awful lot about people when you run a chambre d'hotes. It's as though they become transparent when they enter through your front door. In a nutshell you can tell if they are happy or not. The ones who are satisfied with their lot in life exude an air of contentment. They are pleased to be on holiday, they are content to be experiencing a different culture, a change in the pace of life and to breathe, feel, touch and appreciate all around them.  Ask anyone who is in the hospitality business which clients are the happiest and for most of the time the answer will be 'those with less'. For those with less actually have more.

There is no easy simple solution to the apparently difficult, and to some people, elusive goal of happiness.  I think it is a gift you are blessed with and no amount of money can buy this gift, it's something that comes from within. We all have it at birth and those who know how can  hang onto it whatever life throws at them but those whose goal in life is to constantly seek more through materialistic gains become more and more discontented and once unhappiness takes root it is very difficult to dislodge. 

Where did all this philosophy suddenly spring from and why am I even writing about it ?  It's because I write and suddenly a little project I started on three years ago is finished. It's all there in front of me and now that I am suddenly presented with thousands and thousands of words strung together it is both startling and frightening.  I carry it close and guard it and wonder if I will ever be brave enough to let it go. All I have to do is press the 'send button'.

The doubts start to appear,  the clouds hover over me threatening to settle like a cloak of doom and strangle me with uncertainty. But I'm going to kick all this right where it belongs, out there into orbit, go seek some other mouse to torment because without realising it I have morphed into a lion. And lions roar when prodded. And I've been toyed with for long enough. Sometimes you meet people in life and they perhaps without realising it rattle your teeth and shake your bones so hard it hurts. They split you open so wide you think you will never heal.  But of course you do, all that they have done is open a part of you to let the fresh air in and the creative juices trapped inside flow. You'll never thank them and they will never know who they are but you crossed paths with them for a reason that only you and you alone will appreciate.

But back onto the subject of contentment and happiness that eludes so many. Will pressing the 'send button' make me anymore content and happy with my lot in life ?

Well yes it will because I have learnt a very simple lesson (albeit late I confess). Do not let the discontentment and failure of others cloud your judgement, do not let their unhappiness settle on you, if they criticise without reason it is because they are unhappy within themselves and it has nothing whatsoever to do with you.  Feel sorry for them because they have lost the art of happiness. They have lost 'the child' within them. Give them your warmest smile, show them pity and smother them with all the love you can muster. ♥  No-one has the right to undermine, judge you or hold you back from your dreams and goals.

For those of you however that feel you need a fresh 'kickstart' or some serious motivation this is my secret.

Toby.