It is very human to complain, even for the wisest. Yet, all things are relative and we should embrace the attitude of gratitude and be thankful (at minimum) for another grand day on planet Earth as well as our time, talents, and treasures.
Today I’d like to share a short prose translation from one of the great works of world literature, the Gulistan (1259 C.E.) This volume is one of is one of two magnum opuses from the pen of the great Persian poet Sa'di and I heard it myself via an old Sufi who spoke English on the day I visited the beautiful tomb of Sa'di in Shiraz, Iran during the summer of 2004. Note: the Persians still hold poets in very high regard! Gulistan means The Rose Garden as the work is a collection of wonderful poems and stories about human nature, each beautiful alone, much like the individual flower within such a garden.
Here is one petal of wisdom from Sa'di for you to consider:
I never lamented about the vicissitudes of time or complained of the turns of fortune except on the occasion when I was barefooted and unable to procure slippers. But when I entered the great mosque of Kufah with a sore heart and beheld a man without feet I offered thanks to the bounty of God, consoled myself for my want of shoes and recited:
'A roast fowl is to the sight of a satiated man
Less valuable than a blade of fresh grass on the table
And to him who has no means nor power
A burnt turnip is a roasted fowl.'
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