Satisfied or not?

"My husband and I have been on the house hunt and I've realized how the search has stirred in me such wanting for what I cannot access or afford—for what is just beyond my reach. A home with views is a must, but also a garden, a fireplace, storied architecture, rounded doorways, walk-in closets, a sunlit nursery—privacy, quiet, calm, community. Perhaps though, I already have what I need, I am the home I seek, and I can be content even here."

AmyAnn Cadwell

This article was sent to me last week and I think says something important to us all.

I am always amazed when afternoon visiting how many people are watching and thoroughly enjoying house programmes such as "Escape to the Country" and "A Place in the Sun" and such like. Now I too enjoy seeing these beautiful and often extravagant homes and the naivety of the prosept purchasers. Oh, they want the image of the rosy, perfect life around a wood burner and the 2.2 perfect children who will never tire of life with ponies and never want to be able to leave the rural idyll to join teenage friends in town! Dad is always working and drives the very best in 4x4 or racing car. But even knowing all this and accepting it these programmes capture are basic nosiness of wanting to see how others live and the cost involved in the "perfect life." We do so enjoy them; me included.

We search so often for what we do not not have, that which we had wanted or maybe still do, but not managed to gain in life. It can bring about a restlessness, a questioning of purpose and existence and can lead in some cases to feelings of failure and suicide. Somehow we think that the crisp, sharp, modern bedroom, with straight lines and chrome finish, in shades of grey, black and white will enable us to have arrived, in a world that isn't real. We want it! Well, actually I for one don't, but have always longed for an inglenook fireplace and beams: to have that would mean I had arrived! Maybe for you it is different, a tamed garden, a neat courtyard, a sleek car with an admirable badge on its bonnet, a cozy nook etc etc.

However much searching we do, whether for a home or for other of life's joys, for health, intelligence, etc. we will search but never be satisfied. What we most desire so often is within us the ability to make where we live into a place filled with love, welcome and encounter. The neat patch of garden, that has enabled us to flourish and reveal our inner selves, to be content with whom we are, where we are, and to stop living in dreams and "what if" modes would be freeing. Ideas of being fit, beautiful, young and bright might fill our minds, but we are all of those things and more as we are.

So be satisfied today with our daily lot and look within us when we want more or better. See what others see in us and allow that to feed into our returning of thanks to God for all that we have - or don't!.