A Rich Life
There is always something more to it
Welcome to my newsletter!
This is the very first edition, so please bear with me if it looks a bit rough or there are errors of various kinds. I guess I will learn how to use Substack along the way and make these letters look better over time.
The theme is what is good in life. Not money or success in the traditional sense, but how there is a built-in value and an abundance of opportunites in every situation you’ll experience in life. And how the small things in life is what life consists of. These are what you feel and experience - and remember. The true values.
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If you are not a subscriber, maybe you would like to be? I will post often but not every day, maybe weekly. For a start, all contents will be available for free. Later, I may add one or more levels of paid contents, but there will always be a free level.
This Edition
This time, I have two stories for you right here in the letter, plus a link to a great story published elsewhere that I think you’ll like.
A Rich Life
An introduction
When the world behaves as if it doesn’t like you, bringing nothing but worries and trouble, you could be tempted to write off the whole thing and just name that terrible place we call Earth an evil place.
But it isn’t that simple. Whatever you look at, there’s more to it. Something inside that will make you wonder, that will bring you the joy of insight and show you a new path for the future and a sense of gratitude. If you open your eyes and your soul and look for it.
When that beautiful old tree falls, it leaves an empty space. But anything that lived in the shadow of the tree before will now see the light and start its own, stronger growth. It will lack the protection it used to have, but will also be free of limitations.
When an egg cracks, it may be time to make an omelet. Spice it up with your favorite herbs and enjoy it for what it is, knowing that the egg is gone, which is sad, but the stomach is full, which is good. And life moves on — the egg wouldn’t last forever anyway, and now it was time to enjoy it.
When it rains and the wind blows, you may be trapped at home, unable to go out, unable to enjoy the sun. But that gives you a reason to enjoy the shelter of home, looking out of the windows and smiling for yourself, deeply moved by the fact that you have that possibility.
When you are trapped outside in the rain and cannot find shelter, you’ll need your survival skills and abilities — to plan and do. It can feel tough at the time, but later, when through it, you now have the knowledge and confidence that you could do it once — and again, if needed. And you can choose to be grateful for everything that didn’t break during the troubled time. Being happy for having a world to live in, despite any losses.
When nothing happens, boredom rules, and you start worrying about nobody needing you, making you superfluous: What you really see is an open field, a blank page, a world free for you to build as you want it. Sure, painting by numbers would have been easier, but without the numbers your options are limitless.
When you think about it all, hardship does exist, but the shell will crack and something good will come out of it. Nature works this way. An endless number of eternal cycles of events, sometimes according to your hopes and expectations, at other times on the contrary — but always leading to a new page, a new situation, a new world for you to build.
Even the tough moments contribute — they pave the way to the good moments.
That makes life rich.
The Neighbors
This is a true story - it happened this very afternoon
We are in one of the World’s largest cities, in a neighborhood with many different people, and on the 4th floor on a staircase in a long block of flats, two elderly people are living next door to each other. Let’s call them Maria and Peter.
Maria is a lady in her late 80s. She has trouble walking and she often needs help with shopping - then she asks her neighbor, Peter, a “young” man with a couple of years less life experience and in a seemingly eternal cancer treatment that makes him tired and weak, to help her out. The two then go to a supermarket or whatever type of shop is needed, do the shopping together and help each other carrying home the goods.
Well, this Tuesday afternoon, Peter noticed a couple of shopping bags standing in front of Maria’s door on the staircase. He went there, knocked on the door - and then again, more powerfully this time, as her hearing isn’t the best. But she wasn’t there. And the door was locked.
The bags were her regular, solid shopping bags - with her shoppings in them and her purse and keys simply dropped on the top. But Maria herself was nowhere to see.
What could have happened? How could she disappear? Maybe she was out there somewhere, needing help?
Worries piled up in his mind and he quickly decided to go out and search for her, trying to prepare himself mentally for anything that could have happened. He looked around in front of the house, went to the nearest supermarket while following their regular path, then the next one, and then he took a long walk around to all the places he could imagine that she would go - all the places they would normally visit on their shopping trips.
When he finally gave up and went home - she was there! She had just arrived and they met at the main entrance. But where had she been - he had looked all over for her?
Well, can you imagine: Maria, who can hardly walk and only sometimes are able to carry her shopping bags home without help - she had noticed another old lady out there in the streets, needing help.
That other lady was missing an arm and had tried to carry home a shopping bag but it had dropped out of her hand and now she was struggling to getting hold of the goods and picking up the bag, without much success.
So, our hero, Maria, made a quick decision to rush, as much as that was possible for her, to help the other lady. She didn’t know her, just saw the need for help and reacted upon it.
It had turned out to be too difficult for both of them. The bag was heavy, and none of them were able to lift it up and carry it anywhere. The other lady had been close to giving up completely, had started crying and needed some comforting words - and Maria promised her to find help. She just needed to stay there a bit and relax, and then someone would come and help, Maria promised.
Peter, our old, cancer-sick man immediately went out to help the one-armed lady when he heard the story, after having helped his now very tired neighbor into her apartment with her own bags.
And so, both ladies got home with their shoppings, and all three of these old people could feel the importance of being there for each other - having people around them, even if totally strangers, to help when needed. Feel their lives.
Forgive Me, Pope, for Saying the Wrong Words
A wonderful account of learning languages
This story is by Lily Boyer who has an absolutely wonderful way of seeing life and what happens in it.
It is on Medium, so you may be asked for a login and may not be able to read the story if you don’t have (and don’t want to have) an account there. If you can read the story, I’m sure you will enjoy it!
Forgive Me, Pope, for Saying the Wrong Words
On Medium, I run a few publications, including the one where Lily’s story has been published, about all things language, called Language Talk. You may find other stories there that could interest you.
That’s it for today - I hope you enjoyed it!
I’m Jörgen Winther and writing is what I do for a living currently. It has several shapes, for instance technical writing such as manuals and other instructions, translations of a range of different kinds of technical topics, blog posts and articles.
If you search the Internet, you may find my name in connection with articles about lights and lamps, porcelain, leadership, languages and learning, the nature of the universe, and many other topics. But what I really enjoy the most in life is - life! Therefore this newsletter.
In my newsletters, you may find links to various pages and sites on the Internet. Such links may lead to someone earning money. It can be me or someone else, and it can be due to the site paying the writer of the story when people read it, or it could be because some kind of sale takes place, for instance for a subscription or an e-book, either with a direct earning for me or someone else, or with a commission paid for an affiliate link. If anything is offered for sale, you decide yourself if you want to buy it or not. Please do not feel obliged to buy anything, but feel free to do so if you want to.
nice Good start 🍺🍺