Happiness - Living in Saudi Arabia

Dear Readers,

This particular article doesn't at first seem to fit exactly into the main theme of my Blog but actually it is a natural fit and should have been written a long time ago.

Unless we've given up on life we all strive for some form of happiness. Unfortunately for the great majority of us happiness is staring us in the face and we do not know it is there.

I moved to Saudi Arabia 5 years ago. For nearly 3 years I moaned and groaned about what a lousy place it was - I mean there was nothing to do, nowhere to go, and you always ran the risk of being shot by a terrorist, right?

How stupid I was!!! I wasted 3 years of my life!

I was finally prompted to write this article because to this day I still have close friends of mine who think I have crossed over to the "dark side" because I tell them I like living here.

The people are warm, generous, understanding, gracious, and incredibly hospitable.

The food is excellent. It is an amazingly safe place to live. Except for 3 months in summer the weather is great. The schools are very good. The quality of health care is better than I have experienced anywhere in the world. And finally the cost of living is very low. Oh, and we pay no taxes:-)

So there I was, staring happiness in the face for 3 years and I did not know it was there to be savored and enjoyed - all I had to do was open up my heart and mind and look.

The challenge for all of us in this century is that whilst there is no lack of choice available to us we continue to want for peace and contentment. We do not lack for choice unfortunately, we lack for vision.