How To Live Happily

There were two houses standing next to each other. In one, lived a very unhappy couple who yelled at each other, fought and quarreled all the time. While in the other lived a very happy couple, whose home, was place of calm, love and happiness.  During one of the fights in the first home, the wife asked her husband, “Did you ever hear them quarrel or yell over at that house? No! So, you go there and see what they do to avoid it!”

The husband then went and stood by the window of their neighbours and watched, as the couple were busy doing their own things. The wife was in the kitchen cooking, and her husband sat at the table writing. Then the phone rang. And as the husband jumped up and headed to the hallway to get it, he bumped into a vase, which fell and broke. He immediately got down on his knees and started picking up the pieces. The wife ran into the room from the kitchen, also got down on her knees and started helping her husband to pick them up. Then the man said to his wife, “I am so sorry. I rushed to get the phone and bumped into the vase. It fell and got broken.” But the wife replied, “No, honey, it is my fault. I put it there on the way. That’s why you bumped into it.” They kissed, and that was over. They both got back to what they were doing.

And when the neighbour returned to his wife and narrated all that had happened, he added, “I know it now. The secret of their happiness was, in their family they both are guilty, but in our family we both claim to be always right!” That’s the secret of family happiness! The trick, isn't in not wanting to take responsibility but rather in not claiming to be right. There are times you need to forfeit your right to win your peace, depending on which you cherish most. This recipe is applicable, not only in the home, but also at work, on the road, in the market place, between nations and all relationships.