When joy doubles...

Under the spring sunshine of Tri Le (Que Phong). Photo: Quoc Dan

1.Surely, each of us has thought about happiness at some point. Some people, after struggling to find it, have defined happiness as a shadow. It is difficult to grasp it, and the more you chase it, the more it runs away. It seems right in front of you, but it is also so far away...

One time, weighed down with sorrow, in the twilight of a winter afternoon, I crossed the bridge connecting the two banks of the Lam River. On the quiet, misty river, there was a fishing couple huddled together, eating dinner in the boat's hold. The boat - their house - was very small, the oil lamp cast a shadow on the wife's face, looking hard-working but radiant with happiness. She picked up a chopstick of food from her husband's bowl of rice. The husband, I guessed, was looking at his wife affectionately... Oh, I exclaimed, was this the picture of happiness? I longed to be like them, in that moment, unencumbered by the hustle and bustle and sadness that I was having. Being able to drift, above was the sky, below was the water, next to a loved one...

But how long will I be happy? How long will I miss the city lights, the restaurant meals? How long will I miss the air-conditioned rooms, the TV screens, the computers?

I suddenly realized that people will never be happy if they only think about themselves, about the burdens they are carrying, what they want to trade, think about what others have and wish for and crave?

2.Frank Tyger - American journalist and cartoonist - once said: "If you want happiness, give it to others". What Frank meant is that we will be happy if we care and share with the people around us. When we bring joy to someone, we also create joy for ourselves.

At first it seems easy, but in reality it is not easy to do that. Life is complicated and competitive, sometimes people are their own barriers when they do not know how to overcome jealousy and selfishness. Sometimes in the narrow pond of life, we think that our life is more valuable than everything. We forget that if we do not love, do not rely on other lives, we will forever be just a lonely shadow desperately rising up in layers of mud.

Photo: Internet.

People say that joy doubles when people know how to share. Tears will also become lighter, pain will be less if we find someone who can understand, appreciate and comfort us, who may know how to heal the wound.

A true story that I always keep in my mind as a lesson is about a painter. He passionately painted nature, flowers and grass, and believed that in that world, people would live very kindly. His paintings, as clear as a dewy morning, as fresh as a field of wildflowers shining at dawn, as peaceful as the surface of a lake when autumn first comes... His whole life as an artist, he only wanted to record those images, those emotions about nature as a gift for everyone. In a passionate painting, the painter painted dandelions. He borrowed a French story to convey that dandelions with their gentle but wonderfully passionate fragrance were spread throughout the space by the wind, bringing their beauty to the earth and sky. After telling his story, the artist pointed to the dandelion painting and said to me: “That little flower has given its fragrance to the wind and to the world. This painting could also be called Happiness.”

I always remember the story of him, the artist who brought love of life to me and many others with his dreamy beautiful paintings. He was right, we cannot be alone, we are only truly happy when we know how to love and share. Like those dandelions, they only have meaning when the wind carries their fragrance to spread throughout the world.

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