Satisfied Mind

I sit and stare at the empty page and wonder why there’s so much white space. What might I write?

There was a time in my life when I had no regrets and felt I needed nothing. I had an ordinary job, had no debt, lived alone but didn’t mind it. I had great friends and a simple life. In other words, I had nothing and wanted nothing. Satisfied mind is what they used to call it. It’s so difficult when we get older to have a satisfied mind. We want things. We want what others have and therefore spend our days toiling at work, associate with people we tolerate but don’t particularly like. Years go by and we grow to dislike who we are but, because we’ve been that person for so long, we don’t remember who we were.

We sometimes call this maturity—this growing into a person who fits. Somewhere back around the 11^th grade, we begin to shed our child self and grow into this other person. We try on personalities like shirts and pants, looking for what’s acceptable to those around us. We strive to be popular. Males want girls to like them and girls want guy to do the same. So we lose the lightness that once was us. We conform and change and give up the simple things that used to be fun. Kid stuff. Don’t be such a child. But it was fun. It was fun to be stupid. It was fun to say dumb things and still have friends. Where did it go? Being adult is not much fun—much too serious to have a satisfied mind.