Day 13

Little secret of happiness – the inspiring story of the old man and the marbles

Once upon a time, there was an old man whom everyone in his little town knew. Everyone knew him as the strange bird with unkempt hair who went sauntering through the streets, accompanied by his little dog, in very unusual, brightly colored clothes—above all, in baggy pants with seemingly very deep pockets—who often just sat down somewhere and, serene and incredibly pleased with himself, seemed to be staring into space pondering.

And his busy fellow men and women muttered behind his back:

“Doesn’t he have anything better to do? It must be incredibly boring to do nothing but stroll around all day long and, above all, to loaf about! He’s got a screw loose for sure!”

Then one day a small child dared to ask him why he was so content. The old man smiled at the child and said:

“You know what, every morning I stick a handful of glass marbles in my left pants pocket. Whenever I do something and I do it well and it makes me happy, I reach into my left pants pocket, take a marble and stick it in my right pants pocket. In the evening, when I’m sitting in front of the fire, I take all of the glass marbles out of my right pocket and I remember the happy event for which each individual marble stands.”

As the child looked at him without understanding, but also expectantly, the old man took two marbles out of his right pants pocket:

“You see, this marble from this morning, for example, stands for my having had guests over last night whom I was able to serve a good dinner and one of them sent me a lovely text message of thanks this morning. This marble here stands for my having written a letter to my brother earlier.”

Then the old man took another marble out of his left pants pocket: “And I will now stick this marble in my right pocket because I told you the secret of my happiness and as thanks for this uplifting encounter with you.”

Then the child smiled too and they both went cheerfully on their way.