Tiny Buddha

Author: Janna Krawczyk

  • Desire What You Have and Feel More Satisfied in Life

    Desire What You Have and Feel More Satisfied in Life

    “Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.” ~Hyman Schachtel

    I have a chime with the words “Desire what you have” painted on the front of it. It hangs from the window to the left of my desk in the treehouse where I write. I bought it a few years ago as an epiphany purchase.

    It was one of those times when I was sucked into the vortex of a boutique in Minneapolis, the wallet in my pocket a burning inferno. I saw this beautiful painted chime dangling from the ceiling and I was so struck by the message, I put out the fire out and put my money on the counter.

    I am so glad I did.

    I love the simple wisdom of the phrase: Desire what you have.

    If we desire what we have then no matter what our possessions, we are rich.

    I love coming across it again and again because it reminds me to be aware of my thoughts and to be aware of what I have and what I am now. I need to be reminded.

    When I sat down to begin writing I was looking for inspiration in The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living. I came across this quote by the Dalai Lama:

    “…our moment-to-moment happiness is largely determined by our outlook.  In fact, whether we are feeling happy or unhappy at any given moment often has very little to do with our absolute conditions but, rather it is a function of how we perceive our situation, how satisfied we are with what we have.” (more…)

  • Writing Your Way to What You Want

    Writing Your Way to What You Want

    Writing

    “All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life.” ~M. C. Richards

    There is an art to living, to creating your life on your terms based on your desires, talents, values, and dreams. In a culture where we must attend thirteen years of school, we’re rarely taught to look within and name what it is we want from life.

    We’re rarely taught that we have the power within to live the lives we want, not what other people expect of us.

    While we can’t control what happens to us, we can control how we respond to what happens based on what we want.

    Five years ago I resigned from teaching in the public schools after giving birth to my son. A year and a half later, awaiting the birth of my daughter, I struggled. I missed teaching. I missed connecting with kids in a classroom.

    I missed having something in my life that was my own. While I felt blessed and lucky to be home, I also wanted to teach. But I didn’t know how to join these two desires that felt mutually exclusive.

    Having written in a journal throughout my twenties and into my thirties, I understood the power of pinning down thoughts into words. So within the swell of this profound transformation into motherhood, I began to write about the things I knew I wanted: (more…)