I recently met a woman – a nurse – who had just returned from Ecuador for one year helping the poor and sleeping on the floor of the village’s only schoolhouse every night.

As I professed amazement, she lovingly told of the people and how kind they were even though “they had nothing”.  They lived in poverty.

But whatever she could do for them they appreciated.

Their way of showing gratitude was to prepare a meal using all the food they had gathered for themselves for the week ahead.  (And she said you had to eat it all lest you insult them).

There is goodness all around us.

And people who have “nothing” that have everything.

Surveys show the happiest places on earth tend to be the South Pacific islands where people live virtually stress free which is why even we can’t invade their islands and get them upset.

What is nothing and what is everything?

Gallup tells us $70,000 is the average income of an American family of two earners where the most happiness is reported.

And when a couple makes $80,000 together each year their income may go up but their happiness doesn’t increase in kind.

My takeaway is this.

Happiness has less to do with how much income we make and more to do with living a less stressful life in deep gratitude for what we have.

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