Page 13 - Life is a Fight for Territory

then, I wonder? The statistics are staggeringly disappointing when you look at them. Only 5% of people ever reach financial independence. I read once that most people die within seven years of retiring. Almost everyone is unhappy in their job and nearly everyone argues about money!
Is this all we have to look forward to after a lifetime of experience? What happened to all those hopes and dreams we shared so freely as a child? Where did that hope and wonder of the world go? What happened to that daily happiness that seemed to ooze out of us, infecting everyone around us? Why is true happiness so evasive for so many and what do we have to do to get more of it?
Perhaps happiness is a childish fantasy, something that is not meant for grownups! I wonder about that little tree in the story? Will it stop being happy when it reaches a certain size and then become a miserable, pessimistic, know-it-all adult; only to finally become a gnarled, cantankerous old apple tree?
In John Maxwell’s great book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, he tells a story that I just love. As the fortune teller reads the man’s fortune she says, “You’ll be poor and miserable until you are 40 years old.” “Then what happens?” asks the man with a glint of hope. “Then you get used to it!”
I love the prophetic brilliance in that story – not for everyone of course, but for many people. It is sad but oh so true, isn’t it!
Thucydides said, “The secret to happiness is freedom. And the secret to freedom is courage.” Surely this applies to individuals just as much as it applies to nations, races or communities. How many people do you know who have the courage to pursue 12