Sometimes, the biggest lessons come from the smallest moments. 🌍

I will never forget what I saw when I landed in Sri Lanka on a recent trip. Just a few miles down the airport's road, a huddle of makeshift houses were built with what seemed like cracked concrete and sticks. As we stopped nearby for a mid-road snack, I noticed a broken bicycle and a few bricks lying around the muddy patch surrounding a house. This was different from the Sri Lanka I remembered. I knew about the political instability and inflation from the papers, but this harsh reality did not hit me until it was staring right back at me. And yet amid all of this, there were children about slightly younger than me, contentedly playing with spare tires. They did not seem to care about the ignorant onlooker gawking at them, but continued joyously in their own world. Their hair was unckempt, and their skin was sunburnt, but their eyes were gleaming. His singlets were tattered and frayed, but they were ecstatic. And although they lived here, and I was merely passing by, I was ironically more unsettled than they were. I was dumbfounded. How could they be so satisfied as the world they lived in seemingly crumbled around them? I was complaining about not getting a complete set of books to read while these children were content with their lives, the less than bare minimum. However, as I curiously watched them frolic blissfully amongst the desolate lands, I slowly began to realize that while they may not be surrounded with material wants like I am, they had one thing I did not, a mind at peace. I later learned from my parents that they were the shopkeepers children and was studying for their PSLE equivalent. How fascinating was it? They too had aspirations and refused to stay stagnant in life, but they had made peace with their current circumstances and were content with it. Isn't that what we all strive for? to be enough with or without our aspirations. And somehow children halfway around the globe with every reason to be mad have achieved it. They found the beauty in the barren and responded by smiling brighter.