What’s a good life?
A good life is when you’re at peace, and you’re healthy.
“Love only lasts when it’s about the small things, like clothes, food, money, and sleep.”
Love is like life. Big dreams can be broken down into simple things like books, goals, family, and stories. Great achievements are like dust, lost in the river of time.
Life is short. Don’t let things hold you back. Learn to let go, see through things, and look ahead.
Let Go of the Little Things
Lisa and her husband went shopping. They stopped by a yellow rose. Her husband was good at reading people, so he bought her a bouquet of yellow roses the next day.
But she looked at the roses and thought they weren’t beautiful enough. She wondered if her husband really loved her or if he was just using roses to make her happy.
Later, she came to a conclusion: Don’t need too much. You don’t need to get a lot or hear a lot to be happy.
We often use words like “messy,” “trivial,” and “chaotic” to describe life. It’s easy to see that what makes people unhappy isn’t big things, but the little things that annoy them. No matter how you look at it, it’s just frustrating.
People who live calmly are always simplifying things. As they say, the simplest things are the best.
“Why argue about who’s better on a snail’s horn? It’s a big world out there!”
Snails are small, and their antennas are even smaller. But if you make a big deal out of something so small, you’re just wasting your time.
So, learn to let go of the little things. Think of them as a bit of fun that appears and disappears in an instant.
For example, if someone yells at you, just smile at them and walk away. If someone keeps yelling at you, don’t respond. Just stay quiet, and they’ll give up.
Life is hard. If you keep all the little things in your mind, it will be too heavy. One grain of sand plus another grain of sand becomes the Sahara Desert. It’s best to throw away the first grain of sand as soon as it appears.
See Through the Big Things
What are big things? It’s hard to explain in a few words.
“In life, everything except death is a small thing.” Looking at it from another perspective, big things are about life and death, things that can affect your whole life. Or things that affect the survival of a group of people.
An old woman, when she was sick, didn’t feel sad. Instead, she wrote many poems.
She wrote: “Don’t pity me now, never pity me. I will no longer work, never work again.”
Yes, from a different perspective, when a person reaches the end of their life, it means they’ve already achieved everything they wanted. They won’t suffer anymore. The worries about work disappear completely.
What is marriage? Marriage is about helping each other grow and supporting each other. If you only see love and romance, then marriage becomes a tomb for love, not the beginning of life.
Every big thing has its own direction. It’s not set in stone. So, learn to see through things, and make the turning points in your life beautiful.
Getting married, starting a career, getting sick, growing old, learning for life, taking care of your parents, raising children, these are the big things in life. Serving society and protecting your country, these are the biggest things of all. You can’t avoid them, but you should go with the flow and not let them become burdens.
Look Beyond the Messy Things
“To write a thousand miles to argue over a wall, why not give him three feet? The Great Wall is still there, but the Qin Emperor is gone.”
Two neighbors argued about building a house and a wall. They fought for a long time. Then, they both took a step back and moved the wall back, creating a six-foot alley.
The noise of the argument has been gone for many years, even a whole dynasty. We finally realized that arguing was pointless.
Why do we get caught up in messy things? It’s not because the things themselves are important, but because we can’t let go of our pride and have to win.
People need to look ahead, not just at what’s in front of them.
For example, people who lived in the countryside in the 1970s and 1980s fought with their neighbors over a small patch of land and a pile of dirt. Now, everyone has moved to the city, and no one cares about the land or the dirt. Looking back, the arguments seem ridiculous.
All messy things are caused by “a moment of anger.” If you calm down for a few minutes and think about what will happen in the future, you won’t care anymore.
Even hatred will disappear over time. Some enemies have children who become husband and wife, don’t they?
“One leaf blocks your view of Mount Tai.”
What makes our perspective small isn’t our eyes, but the leaf in front of us. When you realize this, you should move the leaf away. If the leaf is fixed, then move yourself and get some distance from the leaf.
The leaf is gone, and the mountain appears.
“Thinking back on many upsetting things, at the time, each one felt so big, so overwhelming, now looking back, it’s all nonsense.”
Life is full of troubles. Looking back, the little things are the most common, the big things are less common, and the messy things pop up unexpectedly.
At a certain age, you need to simplify things. Step by step, become someone who “has nothing on their mind.”
May you and I have a heart full of the ocean and eyes full of flowers.