by Barbara Adkins

Created on: April 16, 2009

When I think of contentment, a vision of a Rip Van Winkle looking character fills my mind. He is sitting in a cave, legs crossed in a meditative state, with hair past the shoulders and a beard equally as long. His eye's are closed and the sound of "ohmmmmm" is coming from his lips.

How many times have we all sworn we were going to go off and find a cave to escape to. I think that's why they made bathtubs. It is our small enclosed shell of contentment. Throw in some bubbles, sea salts or scented oil, and we can immerse ourselves into the water and close our eye's, offering our own "ohmmmmm" to the heavens for a moment.

Contentment is something we all do experience in our lives, though , sometimes we may have a hard time recognizing that we have it. We split ourselves into 12 pieces (or more) to accommodate the needs of work, family and everyday life, from the moment we wake up, until the moment we close our eyes in the evening. If life is moving in fast forward for us, then it stands to reason our contentment is to.

If you are a parent, you must take great pride and joy when your child does well in school or any area of their lives. The more accomplished your child is in life, the more proud you are of them. But do you take the time to stop and feel contentment for your role as a parent? Do you breath in the moment and understand that your child is modeling after your actions and instruction? If your son has a C in math, that he brings up to a B, do you take the time to feel the joy of your child improving? Do you take the moment to feel the contentment for the hours of homework that you helped him with?

What about your career. When you complete a work assignment, and your boss expresses his pleasure, do you take a moment and feel the contentment of a job well done? Do you stop everything in the world and allow yourself to feel good ?

We can incorporate this thought process into every detail of our lives. From the flower's your spouse planted in the yard, to your clean kitchen after dinner. We don't have to solve the puzzles of the universe, reach our highest dreams, or climb to the top of a corporate ladder before we can find contentment.

Contentment comes from a deep satisfaction that you hold for something you or someone you love and care about has done. It can be as simple as your child putting butter on their toast for the first time, or your child graduating from college. When you see your child graduate from college, what are you thinking about?

"I remember

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