As a person born in the 1960s, my mood during this year's physical examination was actually very simple. Except for high uric acid and gallbladder polyps , the rest were normal. The results of the physical examination were neither sad nor happy.
In that so-called poor era, people's requirements were very simple, and the taste of life was actually very strong. More than half of my parents lived past eighty, and the diet was actually very simple. How could there be gout ?
Many times, I like to look back on the simple taste of food decades ago. Watching grandma shuttle between the vegetable garden and the kitchen, I feel that grandma’s feet are the most beautiful in the world. When you are hungry, you look greedy. Sometimes there is the instinct of being hungry and unselective, and I just look for a few hairy fish in a big plate of green peppers and leeks. In fact, the taste of green peppers is better than that of hairy fish; I also have the embarrassment of being an omnivore to satisfy my greed, and I look for bacon in a big bowl of onions. In fact, the taste of onions is better than that of hairy fish. Bacon is good. In a life lacking in fish and meat, the core of life is actually health and happiness.
After graduating and working, I look for vegetables instead of meat, and use eating and drinking as much as I want to compensate for the simple diet life I once had. This is actually a beautiful mistake. From strengthening to degradation, there is only one step away from dejection; from frugality to luxury, there is only one step away from destruction. What we want, we don’t actually need. The external form of luxury in food, clothing, housing and transportation was only momentarily dazzling compared to those of his contemporaries. If a person does not use external forms of superiority to protect his own vanity, how can he not become a philosopher of life?
If your heart is simple, your life will be simple.
Don’t seek ostentation, only need sunshine and rain, and when the wind sways freely, you will have the beauty of a tree with flowers in bloom; don’t seek complexity, build a humble nest to live in, and fly to look for insects when you are hungry, you will have the freedom and ease of a carefree landscape.
If a person is affectionate, he will be happy with the cup of water; if the butterfly is interested, he will be happy with the dance of flowers. In a simple place, you can enjoy inner peace; in a simple place, you can accumulate the beauty of your heart. He who does not cater to the person he is given but smiles against his will, does not envy others' understanding but cries obscenely, can become a gentleman.
Even if you are tired when traveling to a foreign country, as long as the stars hang low, you will be happy just watching. When I first arrived in Lhasa, faced with the nobility of the white clouds and the clarity of the spring water, no matter how ugly the disguises were, they would all fade away. Because of simplicity, the sunshine arrives at will; because of complexity, the haze is difficult to dissipate.
Confucius said: "It is a wise man to return home! With a basket of food and a ladle of drink, in a back alley, people cannot bear their worries, yet they will not change their happiness even after returning. It is a wise man to return home!"
You need to live simply for the rest of your life. Just settle down by a river, choose a mountain to walk, stay for a flower, look at the moon through a window, write with a single stroke, write poems with one heart, keep yourself healthy by a ladle, and accompany someone until you grow old. Don’t be confused by the colorful things, don’t be hesitant by the impetuous and numerous things. Meet simplicity and richness, remove immaturity and become mature.
If your heart is simple, the world will be simple.
