Who is Lucky?

Both my daughters recently attended one birthday party. After party, they received goodies in small bags. They were looking at their goodies and were getting all excited about it. "You are so lucky!", my elder daughter said to my younger one, "you got berry flavored candy. I wish I got it as well. " she looked a little disappointed. I smiled at their conversation. I thought, when we are little, our problems and definitions or luck are so simple. Just finding a berry flavored candy is related to who is lucky and who is not. But then I thought, it is just not the childhood, all our life we mostly are thinking about "luck" factor with our own perspective.

What is this luck after all? Luck is our own perception of happiness. But then what is happiness after all? It is again very very subjective.

A diseased person might find a healthy person lucky. A lonely person might find a family lucky. A homeless might think that the person who lives in a hut is lucky and a person in a hut might find the owner of mansion lucky. A beggar might find a rich person lucky and a rich person might find a person with easy and free life style lucky. The list is as long a wish list one can have during his/her life. 

Again, but the things I mentioned above change as the time changes. Health and beauty are as volatile as the water is in the sun. Without our realization the heat of aging evaporates it in no time. A house comes with its own challenges. The maintenance required for it is endless. Relationships vary as the time changes. Once best friends become enemies on small issues. Some times kids do not even have time to visit their own parents. Money brings so many enemies and at times never ending lust to a person. We often see badly behaving rich and powerful people and wonder, this person has everything one can materialistically dream for. What is the reason for his/her bad behavior? 

If this is true then who is really lucky? I think lucky is the one who has found peace. Lucky is the one who has no anxiety of losing possessions. Who has no restlessness of reaching some where. He/she has found his destination. It is here. Within. The life's quest might not have ended but the journey is at peace for that person. 

As per Einstein's theory of happiness, "A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the constant pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness." I find it so true when I look around. We are constantly trying to chase something. One goal is met and that gives rise to another new goal. We do not even have time to celebrate accomplishments of the first goal. What is the point of all this? 

There was a joke on social media recently. It goes something like this, there was a fisherman busy fishing on his simple boat. A businessman on the beach was observing him. After the fisherman comes on the beach, the businessman starts talking to the fisherman. "Why are you wasting your time like this in this small village. Come with me to the city. Work for my fishing business and earn a lot of money." The fisherman calmly asks him, "What will I do after earning a lot of money?" "You can start your own business. " The businessman replies. "and what after that?" the fisherman inquires. "once you get  established as a big businessman, you can come to this beach like me and relax on this beach, catch fish and have fun for leisure." said the businessman. "then what am I doing right now? I am already at this beach, catching fish and enjoying my life. Why shall I do the same thing in a hard way?" replied the fisherman. 

Even though, this was just a joke, it is so true. At times we just forget what is our definition of happiness and try to work towards the world's definition of happiness. We just start giving importance to things that world find important and start running behind goals which we never wanted to set for ourselves. How can one feel happy or lucky even after accomplishing these goals then? 

So I think, bottom line of the story is lucky is the one who has found his/her peace within. How do you find it? That is something everyone needs to search for. My quest is on.