A Lesson in Happiness...

"Happiness does not consist of material things or in having what you want, but in wanting what you have". 

A group of alumni from an Ivy League college, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old wise university professor.

Conversation soon turned into complaints and complaints about stress in work and life, etc... 

The Professor realized he needed to teach his former students a lesson once again… 

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some everyday types, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee. 

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: 

"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.

While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. 

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee.

In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.  

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups...

And then you began eyeing each other's cups. 

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups.

They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live. 

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, (he went on to say), we fail to enjoy the coffee... Life has provided us

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Laugh often. Help others. Speak kindly... and we that, his students were taught another important lesson.