“Happiness is only real when shared. ” -Christopher McCandless


Hello! 
How are you doing? It’s been a very tough week for us, the earthlings. Isn’t it?

We sincerely hope you are doing fine, wherever you are. 

Even if things seem to unchill, we need to be chill. The louder the disorders seemingly are, the forces will knit us even closer – as one. The forces are known to human since long, yet it is increasingly emergence to practice it: our sensibility. 

If being sensible means opening yourself to the others, it implies how we trust others to open themselves too. We can get to know how others are equally as fragile as us.  After all, men can use more helping hands.

Here’s a story about a little girl named Jini. She lives with her mother in a small house by the lake. Jini doesn’t come from a wealthy family but her mother always told her to be grateful. “Happiness is only real when shared,” her mom always tells her this. Though she could not understand what’s the meaning of it, Jini nods and promises her mother that she will always remember her words.

Jini doesn’t go to school like most of the kids in her area. In the morning, she has to help her mother doing dishes from one house to another. She never complains. Though sometimes, as a kid she likes to wonder what it is like to be the other kids who are able to go to school, eat their meals three times a day without having to think for the next day or play with toys she always dreamed of having. But as soon as she looks at her mother, she wipes those thoughts away for she clearly sees all of the sacrifices her mother makes for her so they can live day by day.

Sometimes, after Jini and her mother call it a day, they would visit a stall where her mother often buys a piece of bread that they could eat together. Jini knows how much her mother loves bread. That day, her mother doesn’t eat much bread. Jini notices that she is keeping a tiny bit of the bread but she doesn’t ask her mother about that. Her mother then takes Jini’s hand and they both hum along to a song on their way back home.

Just a corner away from their house, her mother stops and tells Jini to wait for her as she walks through a big cardboard box. Curious about what her mother is doing, Jini follows her mother quietly. “Wow, this is not just a cardboard box…” Jini notices a pile of clothing is laying on the ground. “Does somebody…lives here?”

Then she sees her mother. She was talking to an old lady. The lady was sitting on the floor, cooking something from a small pot placed in a small firepit. Her mother sits next to the old lady and handed over the tiny bit of the bread. The old lady eats it happily. She smiles the happiest smile Jini could ever see. The old lady gives her mother a hug, shed a happy tear, and give her a goodbye kiss. Then her mother goes back to Jini.

Witnessing that touching moment, Jini finally knows what “happiness is only real when shared” means. Jini realizes that when a person is happy, that person can make other people happy too. The littlest thing that we can do for others, matter. Jini knows her mother could not afford a lot of things to make herself happy, but she is happiest when she can help others. Jini makes a promise to herself that one day she has to make the people around her happy, especially her mother.

When they have arrived at home, Jini goes straight to Mr. Pong, her small piggy bank. Mr. Pong is responsible to keep all of her money safe. “Mr. Pong, I would like to lend some coins..” said Jini as she counts every cent of her money. “This should be enough,” Jini runs back to the stall and buys three pieces of bread. She goes back home and puts the bread in the cupboard. Her mother doesn’t notice anything until the next day, she wakes up with a surprise to find three pieces of bread sitting nicely in the cupboard.

“Jini!” her mother shouts. Jini goes to her mother and she sees the brightest smile on her mother’s face. They look at each other for a while. “Did you do this?” asks her mother. “No, mom. You do,” replies Jini.
“Thank you, Mom,” Jini hugs her mother. Suddenly, they hear a knock on the door. It was an old lady. She brings them a pitcher of hot tea. Jini and her mother never feel so delighted in their life. They invite the old lady to join them for breakfast. There they are, having the most wonderful breakfast, just being simply happy.

Well, ain’t happiness is only real when shared?
Spread the Kindness