Happy and Pretty Homes

Yesterday while walking through the local Bazaar I noticed a boy, a roadside vendor, selling some cheap clay toys and things. I purchased a small plastic vase from him that had a few plastic leaves and flowers stuck in it. I did not quite need it but the boy did not seem to be making any sales. He was delighted at the sale; perhaps it would help him later with his daily meal. It cost thirty rupees or half a dollar. At home, in my kitchen, there is a kitchen table by a window. It attracts a lot of afternoon sun and any cut flowers placed in a vase there just wilt away rapidly. Therefore I placed this little inexpensive flower vase there and immediately the room lit up. Later in the day a visitor remarked that it looked pretty. I have some unused expensive vases at home too and could easily place this inside those but it is not necessary. I shall let them lie unused for it is not expense that makes a home pretty but love and goodness.

Many a mansion of the rich have I visited in my travels across the world. Not one did I find that was filled with happiness, cheer and beauty, perhaps just wild laughter on occasions when they got drunk in a party. Inside these lofty dwellings were carpets from Persia, curtains from Kashmir, crystal ware from Czechoslovakia and expensive works of arts from elsewhere in Europe. A few even had fittings of gold in the toilet, even a seat of gold to rest your booty. I was afraid if one sullied it, one would not know because the color was so akin to the muck it was designed to hold.  I also visited huts and homes of poor and ordinary, some who had remained barely human in their poverty but there were others who had filled their hearts with treasures of love, truth and beauty and it was here that I found cheer and happiness. For it is not layers of carved stones on outer walls that make a building beautiful but trees, climbers and flowers that grow around it. It is not expensive works of art adorning rooms that make them beautiful but a simple object procured in love and goodness that adds beauty and cheer to a home and dwelling,. and the white toilet seats were a relief to sit on because one was sure they were clean from the color.