Potpie

If you want to be a happy person, don't rummage through your memory.

Osho

There will come a time when you think it's over. That will be the beginning.

Luis Lamoureux

A great parable about the price of our desires, recommended reading.
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There is a store in the back of the universe. The signboard on the store is long gone, it was once blown away by a cosmic hurricane, and the owner didn't bother to nail a new one, because every local resident already knew that the store sells wishes. The assortment of the store was huge: one could buy practically everything here.

Huge yachts, apartments, marriage, the post of vice president of a corporation, money, children, a favorite job, big breasts, winning a contest, big cars, soccer clubs, power, success, diamond rings, and much, much more. Only life and death were not for sale (that was handled by the head office, which was in another galaxy).

Everyone who came to the store (and there are those who never went into the store, but stayed on their asses and wished) first of all learned the price of their wish. The prices were different.

For example, the job I loved was worth giving up stability and predictability, a willingness to plan and structure my life on my own, faith in my own strength and permission to work where I liked and not where I had to.

Power cost a little more: you had to give up some of your beliefs, be able to find a rational explanation for everything, be able to refuse others, know your own worth (and it had to be high enough), allow yourself to say "I", assert yourself, despite the approval or disapproval of others.

Some prices seemed strange. Marriage could be obtained practically for nothing, but a happy life was expensive - personal responsibility for one's own happiness, the ability to enjoy life, knowledge of one's desires, refusal of the desire to conform to others, a little guilt, the ability to appreciate what is, allowing yourself to be happy, an awareness of your own value and importance, the rejection of "victim" bonuses, the risk of losing some friends and acquaintances.

Not everyone who came to the store was willing to buy a wish right away. Some, upon seeing the price, immediately turned around and left. Others stood in thoughtfulness for a long time, counting the cash and wondering where they could get more money. Some began to complain that the prices were too high, and asked the owner for a discount, or asked when there would be a sale.

And there were those who took their life savings out of their pockets and received a coveted wish wrapped in beautiful, rustling paper. Other customers looked enviously at the lucky ones, whispering among themselves that perhaps the shopkeeper was a friend of theirs and the wish had come to them for nothing, without any effort.

The shopkeeper was often offered lower prices to increase the number of customers. But he always refused, saying that the quality of the wish would suffer.

When the owner was asked if he was not afraid of going bankrupt, he shook his head and replied that at all times there would be brave people who were willing to take risks and change their lives, to refuse the usual and predictable life, able to believe in themselves and their desires, having the strength and means to pay for the fulfillment of their desires.

P.S. There is a notice on the store door that reads, "If your wish isn't coming true, it means it hasn't been paid for yet.