One december night while I was on my way home,after attending  a worship service at our local church,EBC Tribal colony,I abruptly came across one big family unit who were happily making their way home.And what attract my attention was that the tall and lanky father,middle-aged man, was tirelessly blowing a sweet-melodious hymn tune on his mouth organ while he firmly gripped his son by his right hand and hurried along the street with the sweet sounding of the harmonica. And what is more fascinating was that the mother who was walking just behind him,hummed to herself the song tuned by her husband while she also held her baby in her arms.Not only that two more kids clung to her walking.

As I kept watching on them with my burning curiousity to know more about them,I overheard the mother talking lovingly to the kids and the kids giving a merry laugh at the mother.On seeing these people,I said to myself"oh,what a blessed family!' They must be very rich and it must be really nice being rich, i kept telling myself.  I followed on them as we were on the same road, and when we reached a junction diimly lit by a street light not that far from a distance, I noticed who the heck these people really are!  But the only thing I knew about them was that the father was a daily wage earner and the mother,a vegetable vendor.Not much richer or poorer than us.

May be they were much richer or poorer than us but what was that they had and what was that I had not.This question really got on my nerve,you know! I meditated like a philosopher who is as if trying to reason why the earth is round and not flat.I said to myself,they were also poor like me but they were happy but I am not.Almost every night i got a picture of those people on my mind.And also I noticed that the joy and happiness cherrished by these people were not seen on the faces of those rich people whom we often misunderstood to be god and tried to please them.at all cost. I knew many rich people who had the power and glory at the cost of their wealth but they did not look happier than the blessed family we talked about.

Out of nowhere,I recalled one of my high school lesson"in celebration of being alive"written by a world-known heart surgeon Dr Christian Bernard.And I felt I was enlighttened but not like Buddha.Realisation dawned upon me that the art of good and happy living lies not in what we have and posses but in the celebration of being alive.. I vaguely remembered the whole lesson but what is left with me was that Dr Christian Bernard,who was the first Heart surgeon to have successfully human heart transplanted,wrote that he was so sorry that he was one of the least happy man.He was a gifted surgeon but had no peace of mind and tranquility as he was beset with pain and angony.The story goes like this,one fateful day while he was crossing the road with his beloved wife after having a wonderful lunch together,all of a sudden, a running vehicle struck them both.They were badly injured but the angel of death had not thronged upon them.After a week long stay in the hospital,the couple were slowly recovering. But Dr Bernard was very upset and disappointed and had lamented why God had put them in such a situation while he had many heart patients to operate on,and his wife had to take care of the children. So, life was like hell!.Dr Bernard felt that life was not fair and kept complaing.He was not happy at all.Besides his pain and agony,he complain why God  allowed innocent children,who could not even say what kind of disease were attacking them,suffer and bed-riden in the hospital.When he heard the pain and cries of the children at night in the hospital,he felt very unfair.

While living a life of hell,oneday Dr Bernard happened to look out from the hospital window where many ill-children were housed. He saw some handicapped children.some whose sight are lost and some whose legs were amputated because of the disease they were suffering.And what struck his mind was that those handicapped children were playing happily with the hospital trolly.They played games as if nothing happen to them. They did not care about their inabilities .they would rather concentrate on the game they were playing and had a great fun, than what happen to their legs and sight.As such,Dr Bernard realised that he had missed something in life.He felt that he was the ungrateful surgeon.So, he learnt a profound lesson that the art of good and happy living lies not in what we have and gained but in celebration of being alive.

Well, it is not true people are happy because they have all those comforts and conveniances of life which we have today like big big hose,luxurious car, computer etc etc.But I tell you or I verily said unto you,people are happy because they know how well it is to be alive today!    every second people died on road,some died in war and some others of disease.But we are alive at this hour,why not be thankful to our Almighty!