From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   Once in rural Russia, a priest asked a newlywed couple how their life was.   
   They said that everything was great, but the house was too small. So the   
   priest told them to bring a goat into the house. After some time, he told them   
   to take the goat out of the    
   house. They said after this that the house was big enough.   
      
   Some things are like that. A strenuous effort will improve you while you are   
   doing it, and you will have appreciation after that for the time that you are   
   not putting in a strenuous effort. And if you have been given one or another   
   kind of privilege that    
   you do not appreciate, having that privilege taken away for a period of time   
   will create rightful appreciation for it.   
      
   Sometimes people do not appreciate what they have. Instead they envy what   
   others have, even though by historical and global standards they have it very   
   well. I have been one of these people. Then I have been through different   
   kinds of unpleasantness, and    
   I developed appreciation for what I had had. I am reminded of a poem by Anna   
   Akhmatova,   
      
   We thought we were beggars, we thought we had nothing at all   
   But then when we started to lose one thing after another,   
   Each day became   
   A memorial day -   
   And then we made songs   
   Of great divine generosity   
   And of our former riches.   
   So now I appreciate what I have a lot more, even if I do not have a mansion   
   and a Mercedes.   
      
   The same is the case with other things than wealth. It can also be the case   
   with human relationships. Sometimes having relationships is for the better, at   
   other times it is for the worse. With anything that people want, appreciation   
   grows if you have    
   lost it and then found it again. If you have a partner but see her as a bad   
   person, then the solution is to leave her. In most cases you will miss what   
   you had had.   
      
   Right now I appreciate just about anything. That I am in comfortable quarters.   
   That I have a good family and good friends. That I am healthy. That I have   
   decent food. That I have known wonderful people who think well of me in   
   return. That I have a lovely    
   daughter. That I can have insights. That there is a power in my life that is   
   guiding me toward better character and better choices.   
      
   Often people do not appreciate what they have, and they make themselves and   
   others miserable that way. The correct solution is to build appreciation for   
   such things. One way to do that is to take such things away from them and   
   leave them without them.    
   Then, once appreciation grows, return those things.   
      
   Of course there are times when what one has really is unwanted, and something   
   quite different is wanted. If this is the case, what is unwanted can be taken   
   away as well. Then the person will decide whether to want it and go back to it   
   or to make do    
   without it. In either case, taking away what is unappreciated is warranted,   
   allowing the person to decide whether to have it and appreciate it or to make   
   do without it altogether.   
      
   In my case, once again, I now appreciate just about everything. And that makes   
   me much happier than I was when I had many things and acted like a brat.   
      
   Ilya Shambat    
   https://sites.google.com/site/ilyashambatthought   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)