Why are you complaining?

We all have problems, some have bigger problems than others but can you tell who has the biggest one? How do you know? How do I know that my problem is smaller than the one you have? The truth is you will only know when you are talking to the right person.

Maria was a woman who kept complaining about the sad life she was leading. She only knew how to say... “This only happens to me” and so she spent her days, her sad days, between lamentations and sadness.

The people in her neighborhood rarely wanted to talk to her. They already knew her and whenever you approached her and told her that maybe something was wrong in her life, Maria immediately told her entire life story again.

“Oh, my friend, but I'm doing worse.” And immediately, without waiting for the other person to tell her anything, Maria would then blurt out everything that happened to her that day.

"And the thing is that since I woke up today everything has gone wrong. I left my sandals under my bed last night and when I got up they were gone, the cat carried them beyond my reach and I had to walk around barefoot for a while... what an unpleasant situation.

Then, when I wanted make a coffee, it turned out that I had no more wood in the stove... Alas, poor me. I stopped doing what I was supposed to do and went to the barn to get firewood.

Then when I went to get the eggs for my family's breakfast the crow had already beaten me to it and didn't leave me enough for everyone... Poor me, how many bad things happen to me."

And without another word she left her interlocutor with their mouths open and walked away with her customary lament. Nowadays she would no longer let anyone speak and would only complain and complain and then walk away, without listening to what others might say.

One day while Maria was in the grocery store, trying to stretch the money, that according to her was not enough for much, she could observe how a little girl of about 8 years old was staring at the candy pantry with her little black eyes, dark, almost round from emotion and her little face had a blushed complexion, as if drawn with crayon.

But the girl did not buy or ask for anything. Maria discreetly turned to look around and saw no adult. Then she asked the girl why she was alone. To which the little girl replies…

"I'm not... my mother is on the other side, I help her choose the groceries but whenever I pass by this shop window I stop to look at the candy."

Maria incredulously kept walking and looking for the girl's mother with her eyes, until she could see her. She was a short lady with a very sweet and kind expression on her face, she was carrying in her arms a small basket in which she was placing the products she needed from the store.

 As the lady approached Maria, she could hear what the mother was saying to her little daughter.

"Try to take the smaller package because its contents are more appetizing.”

“Take the 200 gram package because the other one has a more bitter taste, go to the shop window and take only two eggs because if we take several they will be damaged because of the cold weather there."

…And things like that. For Maria, everything the lady said made no sense at all, but her obedient little girl listened to her mother diligently and took everything she asked her.

Maria then decided to approach her and pretend to have a casual conversation with her. For the first time in her life she was willing to listen to what someone else had to say about her life.

Maria would then see the price of a product and says in a slightly low and pitched voice but trying to be heard by the little lady. "Oh this package contains only 50 grams more than the one next to it but in taste it is of lesser quality. I'd better take the small one."  The lady looks at her, looks at the bottle and says....

"Sometimes the smaller things are of better quality and better price…"

Maria then follows him trying to get more conversation. And finally she asks her...

"I've never you here before, where are you from?"

"We are from a house in the suburbs, we live in the woods, with nature at our fingertips."

“Why live so far from the village?”

“It's just that we are alone, we’re waiting for my husband who went in search of work more than a month ago and still hasn't returned.”

“And what do you live on then?”

“We live on the products we harvest and make at home, we exchange them here for some products that we are missing and we exchange them with the owner of this place. We live very well and thank God because our harvest is enough to share between the house and the store.”

“How do you cope with the cold at night?” In the forest the winter cold must hit harder, so the kind lady replies...

"We can cut down a tree from time to time and we make some firewood of its dry branches and that keeps us warm at night, in the daytime between the fields and the chores, we aren’t really affected much by the cold."

The lady always had a nice smile to give. Eventually, she said that she and her daughter were about to leave but then she was stopped by Maria, who said.

 “Would you mind if I offered some candy to your daughter?”

And the lady thanked her, but asked her not to bother, but Maria begged her to accept. And so it was that the smiling lady thanked her while Maria went to the storeclerk and ordered something, he then prepared Maria’s order on a bag, but didn’t give it back to her…

Maria, before leaving, told the lady that it had been a great pleasure to meet her and that before leaving she should take the bag that the store owner would give her.

After a while, when the lady was leaving, the owner of the store stopped her when she was trying to pay. He told her that Mrs. Maria asked him to give her this bag and that she asked her daughter to carry it, they could only see the contents when they arrived at her house in the forest. The lady promised to do as she said, and they went home.

When they arrived to their home in the forest, the lady opened the bag and found small packages of products that they couldn’t afford, so that she and her daughter would not suffer so much in those days, Maria put some sweets and several bags of sugar, salt, flour, butter and chocolate inside, alongside some other things. The lady could only thank God for this angel that He had placed in her path.

Farther away was Maria in her house and thinking that her life was very privileged. She had everything, a husband, children, a cat and everything she needed at her fingertips.

If she wasn't happy with that, what could she be happy with? How could she not see it before? And she thanked God for opening her eyes to her ignorance. From now on he would no longer talk so much and would instead listen more to the things people had to say. It was time to make the world see that we have much more than we need. It was time to make everyone see that there are no problems that keep us away from God's grace.

We have to be thankful for everything. For God gives us all what we need. We must open our eyes to love and close our minds to complaining.

I hope you liked my story…

I thank you as always. To all my readers, commentators and sponsors, I am glad to have you all with me, always!