Last year, a story appeared on Facebook that spread like wildfire. It shared an important lesson about something that seems so simple to understand, yet is actually quite difficult to have: gratitude. Although many of us have more material wealth than we need, we also continuously strive to gain more. Which is why sometimes it’s good to take a step back and ask ourselves: Shouldn’t we be grateful for what we already have? It’s not always an easy lesson to remember, but it’s one that life seems to keep finding new ways of telling us. And sometimes those insights come from the most unexpected quarters, just like in this beautiful story…
One day, a very wealthy father took his son on a trip to the country for the sole purpose of showing his son how it was to be poor. They spent a few days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
After their return from the trip, the father asked his son how he liked the trip. “It was great, Dad,” the son replied. “Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked. “Oh, yeah,” said the son.
“So what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father. The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”
The boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added, “It showed me just how poor we really are.”
Please share if you also think that this little boy pointed out a very important lesson about life.
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