Once upon a time Jane took a walk into heaven in search of happiness. There she met God who gave her five portions of happiness. Before Jane left back for earth God told her, "You must always keep these portions in a safe place preferably your heart where no one can steal them because they are irreplaceable, but, however you can exchange them for anything you want." Happy knowing she now had what she wanted, Jane locked her portions of happiness in her heart and went back to earth.
Whilst walking down the road one day, Jane noticed a beautiful car. It was fast and magnificent to look at. As much as she like it, she knew it was too expensive for her to buy. She consulted the old man, World, who told her "You have the most sought after treasure at home why not trade one portion of it and get the car after all you will still be left with 4 portions". Soon Jane had her car. She noticed that when she drove very fast, her heart would beat very fast, in the same way she felt when she was holding a portion of happiness in her heart. However as time passed she noticed that the car needed so much service, if she did not drive carefully it could kill her. Sometime the car would just refuse to move or sometimes other careless people would hit the car. She could not protect it in her treasure chest in the same way she could for her other portions of happiness.
As time went Jane realized she need a steady income to put fuel into her car and maintain it so she consulted that old man again, World, who told her "You still have four other portions why not trade one of them for career". This sounded like good advice so she traded her portion of happiness for career. Career was good to her, sometime career would reward her with a bonus, promotion and all these benefits she never had before. Down the line in the year she discovered that career was very demanding. Sometime career would demand her spare time such that she could not spend it with her friends, sometimes career would force her to travel very far from her home. As hard as she worked it just seemed career would never be satisfied. Career just wanted more and more. So Jane was now getting more stressed but she needed career to sustain her trade of happiness found in the car. So then she thought to herself "If career is so demanding I need a place to come home to which takes away my stress. A big place where I have everything I want and once in a while I just sleep and do nothing." So with her third potion of happiness she traded it for a house.
This she thought was the biggest and best trade of her life. When it rained hard, or the earth got too complicated she would get into her house and just relax there. She could walk in the house whatever time she wanted, she had no rent to pay or anything about a house to stress. She basically could do whatever she wanted. However as time went on she soon noted that house never talked to her. Sure she would talk, sing, dance and sleep in the house but house just never seemed to care. House was just stone faced. Sometimes she would be so excited and she needed to talk to someone but house would never really respond, all house ever did was sit and be stone faced, after all house was made of stone. Sooner than later, Jane realized that House was just too big. House needed so much attention to keep it clean. It was a lot of work maybe not as demanding as career but more personal. If she did not clean House or take care of it once in a while with a new coat of paint, House would get rusty and could depress her without even saying a word. So Jane was now confused, she had a car, a good career and a good house, things which everyone else wanted but she was not happy at least not all the time. She soon noticed that all these things made her happy at specific times of the day. Career made her happy at the end of the year with a bonus, car made her happy when she was driving on a good road with little traffic, and of course house made her happy when she cleaned it and she was happy. Jane now understood she was in a dilemma so she went to the old man, World, after all World knew it all and could solve her problem. Jane went to World and explained her problem.
World thought deeply and said, "If you look outside you will see that the happiest people are the people who have friends and consistent company, why don't you trade your fourth portion for a person. Find someone like you who understands your needs, someone who is always there, someone you can talk to whenever you like, someone who can clean themselves and of course someone who does not demand a lot." This made perfect sense to Jane so she set about her task to find this perfect someone or least near perfect someone. As if by coincidence she met Mr. Right. He was charming and handsome, he would buy her roses at valentines, call her from time to time, though they could not always be together, she could call him at any time and he would be there. Mr. Right always smelled good and looked clean. When they slept together it was way better than the feeling of driving. "Whal", she thought this is the perfect combination, a house, a car, a career and a man who loves me what else could I want. As time may have it, staying with another person has its moments. Sometimes they would fight a little but they always had solutions, sometimes Mr. Right would be unhappy at work and he would bring this unhappiness to home. But through it all he loved her so much. So Jane always thought to herself, "If I had only known I would have started by getting Mr. Right first". But as we all know time does pass and people die, so Mr. Right unfortunately was the first to go. But before he died, she found out that he also had been given five portions of happiness. When they met, he, like her, had traded his portion of happiness for her. Instead of being left with one, she now had two in her heart the other being the one from Mr. Right. So at least now she had two portions of happiness left so she went to heaven to talk to God about this. She wanted to know why all the other three portions had not made her happy and the fourth portion at least had worked for a while before Mr. Right died. She was angry though that the fourth portion was unable to keep Mr. Right from dying in a way it seemed like the worst because she could afford to lose, the house, the car, the career but not Mr. Right. She wanted to understand why the other three things had not made her as happy as the Mr. Right even though he died he still made her happy. While Mr. Right was alive she always felt this connection to him. She could not explain it but she felt her heart was joined to him somehow and this made her happy. So God began to explain
"Happiness is never meant to be kept in a locked box. Happiness can be traded but you must be careful what you trade it for. When you trade happiness, you must receive happiness. It is irreplaceable, so when you trade happiness you must in turn receive happiness also. It's like trading a house for another house. If you trade happiness with anything else you will discover that the thing you receive will not make you as happy as owning happiness. When someone trades happiness with you they do not give it you into your hands they put it into your heart, most of the times we do not notice it. When someone loves you so much it is because they have stored their greatest treasure inside you so they will cherish you and keep you. A connection exists where two people have similar portions of happiness which they have traded because to them it is the most natural thing to do. Each portion of happiness is unique but it has a twin. If someone says they love you but have not put their happiness inside your heart sooner or later you will see that they do not treasure you or you will sooner than later discover that there is no connection between the two of you.. If you have your portions of happiness, trade them with someone who will give you the perfect identical portions of their happiness that way you will never be short of happiness or miss your portion. "
In life we have five portions of happiness. One for the family we come from, one for our children, one for our Mr. / Mrs. Right, one for our God and the other for our own heart to keep out hearts beating. So when you look at your life, think of your portions of happiness and if you have ever received any from the people around you or have you traded them for objects which cannot give you happiness. Food for thought. Jane was grateful to now know this when at least she had two portions of happiness left. So Jane went back to earth to start a new life and new journey.
