“Life’s field will yield as we make it, a harvest of thorns or flowers.”
This is a quote that really spoke to me because I agree with it 100%. It reminds me of a saying I heard my uncle recite once: “If you never appreciate what you have, no matter how many times you pray for it, God won’t give you happiness.”
I know a lot of people who get so depressed and defeated when they are facing simple problems. Obviously there are some situations where it will take a lot of time for you to get over the trauma such as a family death. However, most of the time, minor problems such as cluttered schedules keep people fretting and constantly complaining about their life. If you got an hour off everyday, then you shouldn’t whine about the lack of free time you have, rather you should be appreciating that hour that you have to spend with the family or take a nap. Even if something changes for the worst in you life such as you finding out that you have a deadly disease, you shouldn’t mope about what you were not able to do. Queen Latifah’s reaction in The Last Holiday when she found out she had a terminal illness that insurance won’t cover was that she spends all of her money doing everything she always wanted to do.
There are also others who are always complaining about what they have, and especially, about what they don’t have. They don’t even realize that there are so many other people who are in worse conditions—forget being able to buy a pair of shoes that they really like, they aren’t even able to afford basic needs such as food, articles of clothing or a safe place they can call home. Everyone goes through obstacles in life, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. The reason it’s called an obstacle and not a death sentence is because it is like a boulder: it is in the middle of the road you are on, but that doesn’t mean you can’t continue on the path; you just have to work harder in climbing the rock and getting to the other side so you can continue walking.
It all comes down to acceptance and appreciation. You will be able to attain happiness once you adhere to those. Depending on what your take on life is and how happy you LET yourself be, you will be able to live amongst flowers or thorns.