Happiness Comes from Giving
快乐来自给予
A beautiful, expensively dressed lady complained to her psychiatrist that she felt that her whole life was empty; it had no meaning.
一位相貌美丽、衣着华贵的女士向她的精神医师抱怨自己的人生空空如也、毫无意义。
So the counsellor called over the old lady who cleaned the office floors, and then said to the rich lady, "I'm going to ask Mary to tell you how she found happiness. All I want you to do is listening."
于是，这位咨询师就叫来了打扫办公室地板的老妇人，然后跟贵妇说：“我让玛丽来给你讲讲她是怎样找到快乐的。我要你做的就是听她讲。”
So the old lady put down her broom and sat on a chair and told her story, "Well, my husband died of malaria and three months later my only son was killed by a car. I had nobody.... I had nothing left. I couldn't sleep; I couldn't eat; I never smiled at anyone; I even thought of taking my own life. Then one evening, a little kitten followed me home from work. Somehow I felt sorry for that kitten. It was cold outside, so I decided to let the kitten in. I got it some milk, and it licked the plate clean. Then it purred comfortably and rubbed against my legs, and for the first time in months, I smiled. Then I stopped to think; if helping a little kitten could make me smile, maybe doing something for people could make me happy. So the next day, I baked some biscuits and took them to a neighbour who was sick in bed. Every day I tried to do something nice for someone. It made me so happy to see them happy. Today, I don't know of anybody who sleeps and eats better than I do. I've found happiness, by giving it to others."
这个老妇人就放下扫帚，坐在椅子上讲自己的经历。“嗯，我的丈夫因为疟疾病故了，三个月后我唯一的儿子也遭遇车祸死了。我失去了亲人……我什么都没有了。我睡不着觉，吃不下饭；我不再对任何人微笑，我甚至想结束自己的生命。之后一天晚上，我下班的时候，一只小猫跟着我回到了家。不知为什么我觉得那只小猫很可怜，当时外面很冷，我就决定让它进屋来。我给它弄了些牛奶，它把盘子舔得一干二净。之后它舒服地发出了咕噜咕噜的声，还在我的腿上蹭来蹭去。几个月来，我第一次露出了笑容。后来我就开始想，如果帮助一只小猫能让我微笑，也许为人们做些事情就能让我开心起来。所以第二天，我就烤了些饼干，一个生病卧床的邻居送去了。每天我都试着对别人做一些好事，看着他们高兴，我就变得非常开心。如今，我再也找不到比我吃得更香、睡得更好的人了。通过把快乐带给别人，我自己也找到了快乐。”
When she heard that, the rich lady cried. She had everything that money could buy, but she had lost the things which money cannot buy.
听到这些，贵妇哭起来。她拥有钱可以买到的一切，却失去了钱无法换来的东西。