After a good meal of barley and sprouts

After a good meal of barley and sprouts 

On the stone's end at the water's edge, I rest as long as I like. 

Of all other things, what could I envy? 

-Yun Seondo (윤선도, 1587-1671)

Yun Seondo was a Choseon scholar, official, musician, and poet.  He is one of my favorite sijo authors because his works always seem to have a very reflective, personal tone to them.  

No matter your situation in life, all of us seem to be stressed about something.  We always seem to think that happiness could be ours if we could just do this or have that.  What I love about this poem is that it is not overtly didactic, only directly addressing envy at its close, yet it so powerfully persuades us to reassess priorities and contemplate what we really need to be at peace.  In this calm vignette, the simple beauty of our lives so fully crowds out envy that by the end it seems entirely absurd.

*Image from www.heybrian.com.  Taken at the Korean Folk Village.  The guy has some pretty awesome pictures up on his website.