ORIGINALLY POSTED DECEMBER 2006

Each night we read a bed time story, well most nights. I randomly read a story by Brothers Grimm.  Last night was eerie as I read the story to my sons. How art imitates life sometimes.  It seemed like my life was right where the story of the Fisherman and his Wife ends. 

The story begins as the fisherman hooks a magic fish and lets it go.  His wife berates him for not wishing for something and commands him to go ask for a bigger home.  Without thinking of his own desires he goes to the fish and asks for his wife’s wish.  The fish makes it so.  The wife then makes him go back and ask for a castle, then a palace, then to be Queen and beyond....  Each time he returns to the fish he thinks not of himself but his wife. 

But he also knows she can't be made happy.  He knows she will ask for more.  Finally she asks for something I won't reveal.  When he does ask the fish replies, "Go back home, your wife is back in her hovel."  He and his wife finished their days where they started.  She simply pushed it too far.

So what is the moral of the story?  Be satisfied with what you have. Be happy with what you have because that is what you settled on making you happy in the first place.

For me, my needs were always simple.  A family and a nice home to live in.  I have all that I need now. I’ve never lost sight of that.  I don’t need to listen to others telling me I could do better.  The fisherman figured out that she was going down a road he couldn’t help her with.  He let her go knowing she would only end up where she started, with nothing.