One of my friends has a “special needs child”. She is profoundly disabled and has a lot of pain. She also finds great joy in the simple things in life, as do I. Pain and disability has a way of stripping away a commonly held grasping toward the unimportant things in life, transient things like material possessions, money, power and prestige. It then becomes more possible to see and feel joy in simple, basic things, like feeling a breeze, being with family or a hug. In general, children have not yet gotten lost in the meaningless aspects of our culture. They can teach us much, if we adults can listen.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Joy in Simple Things
One of my friends has a “special needs child”. She is profoundly disabled and has a lot of pain. She also finds great joy in the simple things in life, as do I. Pain and disability has a way of stripping away a commonly held grasping toward the unimportant things in life, transient things like material possessions, money, power and prestige. It then becomes more possible to see and feel joy in simple, basic things, like feeling a breeze, being with family or a hug. In general, children have not yet gotten lost in the meaningless aspects of our culture. They can teach us much, if we adults can listen.
