8.09.2013

Vow of Contentment

I can thank the Happiness Project for this revelation (link)

“By making a vow of stability the monk renounces the vain hope of wandering off to find a ‘perfect monastery.’ This implies a deep act of faith: the recognition that it does not much matter where we are or whom we live with…Stability becomes difficult for a man whose monastic ideal contains some note, some element of the extraordinary. All monastaries are more or less ordinary…Its ordinariness is one of its greatest blessings.”


How does this apply to an everyday life? For someone looking for simplicity and contentment and overall happiness, it has EVERYTHING to do with everyday life!

How much happier would you be if you weren't looking for something better? If you were truly happy with your lot in life?

Lately I have been wanting to sell my car. My grand plan was to sell it, pocket the money and drive the junker that we got for our son to learn to drive in (hubby found a running car for $200 and has put enough money into it to make it safe... but its still not pretty). Drving it until we found the perfect replacement.... or until the teen buys the junker, which ever comes first.

Hubby had a different plan, he thinks we should sell the 4 door sedan and get a fuel efficient, newer, SUV thing so that we would have a practical, reliable and stylish vehicle to be seen in.

In otherwords he wants to UPGRADE.

I had a reasonable offer on my car. But it still makes me sick to think my lovely car has depreciated by 40% in the last 3 year! In effect, we have absorbed $135/month - not including taxes or insurance or maintenance, for the privilage of driving the car.

To add insult to injury, hubby and I went car shopping and found the top end of my comfort zone for car price buys a run down picked over (and sometimes smelly) model of the car that haubby prefers!To get into one of those cars would be like paying several thousand dollars to DOWNGRADE and a significant amount of taxes too.

This is were the vow of stability comes in.

Please hold me to this.

I vow to love my car -even though it isn't dog or cargo friendly & even though it drinks PREMIUM only fuel - because it looks good, it runs great and it is paid for. So as long as this car is safe and reliable and not too embarassing to take to client meetings, I will stay the course. I will remain content - even with hubby pressing for something different.

1 comment:

jennye said...

Best of luck in resisting! Your reasoning is sound. :)