Once upon a time, a prosperous merchant sent his son to a wise man to learn the secret of happiness. The lad walked for forty days until he reached a great palace built on a mountaintop. This was where the wise man lived. He waited two hours in a long queue. When it was his turn the wise man told him there was not enough time at present and he should take a tour of the castle in the meantime and come back in two hours. The wise man gave him a spoon in which two small drops of oil were placed and told him to hold the spoon carefully throughout his walk so the drops do not run off the spoon.

So the lad started his walk throughout the palace. He toured every nook and cranny of the great building, ascending and descending many times along the way, all the while holding the spoon carefully so that each drop stayed in its place.

When he returned, the wise man asked him: “Did you see the Persian carpets in the dining hall? Did you see the sumptuous gardens? Did you peruse the volumes in the library?

The lad was taken aback. He confessed that he had not seen anything, because he was busy preventing the drops of oil from spilling off the spoon.

The wise man ordered him to take another tour of the palace. This time, the lad paid attention to his surroundings. He saw all of the splendors the palace had to offer. However, when he returned to the wise man, he realized that the two drops of oil had run off the spoon.

The secret to happiness is to experience the wonders of the world around you while not spilling the drops of oil. Happiness is to achieve a balance.

Enjoy the little things that life sends your way. Give them your attention, and your life will be filled with many opportunities for happiness, great and small. Do not cross examine everything that happens. Do not dissect every situation. Do not kill the joy. Take pleasure in a pleasant meeting with an acquaintance. Enjoy a short break sipping tea or having a meal wish some friends. Engage in some light conversation, steering clear of the heavy questions that will just turn the mood sour.

Life’s many moments can be likened to a cabbage. Some people tear of its leaves to eat them or to use them in preparing a meal. Other tear off all the leaves and discard them in order to get at the juicy heart, and they turn up empty-handed. They denied themselves the benefit of the cabbage leaves looking for something more precious, and found that they had instead discarded everything of value. You might say that the cabbage has no heart, or you could say it is all heart. Our lives are like that. We often see the everyday events of our lives as having little value, and we do not give them the attention they deserve. However, those moments are our lives, and we should live them as positively as we can. If we make it our habit to do so, our lives will be richer.

I owe a lot to times in my life which were very painful. Many people wanted to keep me from happiness. Instead, they forced me to notice what was better than what I had known. As Allah says to us: “Allah knows, and you do not know.” [S

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