With the exception of abuse, poverty, and other extenuating circumstances, how many of you are relatively content with what you have?
In my profile, I wrote:
I find the wonder and joy in life. The infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand, the joy of tasting a juicy, ripe peach. Intense, playful, passionate and determined, I have fun every day.
I love hiking to alpine lakes surrounded by white glaciers and jagged mountain peaks. After dark, I look up and feel awed by the glowing Milky Way and billions of sparkling stars. We all need more low-level ecstasy in our lives.
I'm relatively content with what I have, but I'd be happier with finding companionship... when the time is right.
I have what I need and sure there are things that I want but they are not essential to the quality of my daily life. Back in the late 1980's a good friend had an original Cobra 427 SC and I had the pleasure of driving it and also drove his 1926 Cadillac Sedan. When his wife, a Fleet Street journalist, found out that I had driven both cars, she was livid because he would not let her drive them, I don't know why.
Grateful yes, content no. I am 70, and my doctor tells me l am the healthiest patient over 60 she has. No medical conditions, no prescription drugs, no blue pill, and I can still play drums at a high level. Contentment might happen with a partner to share life with, but it doesn't seem likely at the moment.
If by "what you have" you are referring to "material things", I'm very content.
Most of my material acquisitions have been initiated by the women in my life. They like to "nest" and as one gets older they like to create an attractive destination for visits by adult children (it seldom works out as imagined, of course). I suppose there's some subconscious drivers of the "keeping up with the Joneses" variety but personally if it was just me I could be perfectly happy in a one room studio with good Internet service in a location where I could get by without owning a car. My youngest brother is the same way, he's said in the past he could get by with 2 or 3 bean bag chairs in lieu of furniture. My sibs and I are lovers of simplicity and straightforwardness.
Contentment though is also about other things, about having your relational, emotional, mental and aspirational needs met. In that area I'm not doing as well as I'd like, but well enough that complaining about it even to myself is a waste of time, as many of those trains have long since left the station.
I live in an old rental house built in 1950. Ive been in this house for 23 years. It's under 1000 Sq.Ft. With no updates and repairs are a rarity. It has a backyard, a front yard, a garden, a garage, three bedrooms. It's not even my house, but I raised my kids here in this small town and I stayed here to live near my mom in her golden years and to be near her and take care of her and her house until she passed. I live alone now, with what elderly pets I still have. I have a beautiful new car that's paid for, a loving family, food on the table, a roof over my head and anything I need or want right here, right now. I sometimes feel I have too much. I am very fortunate with as little or as much as I have, but I worked for everything. I could probably live with less. It's all in how you view things.
I am! I worked to live, not the other way around. That (not working a huge portion of your life span) is really only possible if there exists some goal of having ENOUGH... to be content. I have reached that point. I am now out of the corporate rat race and able to now spend more time on things that I want to do, rather than have to.
Without a limit of "enough", I might have worked my entire life acquring more, more, and more. That not only costs me precious time that I can never get back, but also means that was time was spent acquiring frivolously, AND also further lining the pockets of the (already) wealthy folks at the top. No thanks. I choose to live MY life, rather than endlessly running like a rat on a wheel for some contrived consumerist dream or fat cat.