They say that everyone you meet in life has something to teach you. While I haven’t actually met this person, his story has taught me something beautiful.

Ramesh Gangarajam Gandi was on his cleaning shift, sweeping dry leaves off the streets of downtown Dubai when he decided to form a heart out of the fallen leaves and twigs he had collected.

As he raked, his mind wandered and landed upon his mother and ill father, who both lived abroad, his two brothers, who lived in Oman, and his wife, whom he had recently married but hadn’t seen in over — since the day he moved to Dubai to begin his job.

Little did he know that this little sentimental street art creation would win him the grand heartfelt admiration, recognition, and fame across the nation.

Someone working in a nearby Dubai office spotted him and snapped a picture of Ramesh and his heart. He then posted the photo on Instagram and it instantly spiraled into a viral frenzy. 

In a recent interview with Gulf News, Ramesh explained why he forged the heart and how he was surprised by the people who interpreted him as sad, when in fact, he had an ocean of things to be grateful for:

“I was thinking about my wife when I made the heart. I miss her a lot, but I know she knows I love her and am always thinking of her… I’m surprised people who have seen the photograph think I am sad and that is why I made the heart. I actually feel very lucky. I have a good job and I enjoy going to work every day. I am in good health. I have a wife and close family. I have a lot to be thankful for.”

Here are two lessons under the theme of happiness and gratitude that Ramesh has taught me.

Lesson #1: Happiness Comes From Within

Ramesh didn’t draw his heart because he was sad, he drew it because he was so grateful for all that he had. He drew it from a place of love and fullness, not a place of lust and emptiness.

Despite the illness of his father, and the distance and disparity of his family, he still has them all in his life. Despite his longing to see his wife, he has the privilege of having someone in his life whom he often thinks about and loves dearly. 

The heart was an emblem to the universe as a token of appreciation for all that already is: A good job he enjoys going to work to every day, good health, a wife and a family.

He had a lot to be thankful for, and so do you.

Too often in life, we are held back by the idea that happiness is an island of paradise that must be reached. But happiness is not something to be found externally, happiness is what we carry within us in our everyday moments — happiness is the way.

We spend a lot of time trying to figure out the next thing that will make us happy, but not nearly enough time trying to enjoy the happiness that we already have.

Here’s what we can learn from Ramesh’s story:

Your happiness and wellbeing have nothing to do with how well you think you’re doing, how far into the journey you’ve crossed, or what’s coming next. Your happiness and wellbeing have everything to do with how ‘present’, accepting, and content you are with all that is.

Your happiness sprouts from a place of fullness, not emptiness. It’s rooted deep within. It’s born out of the conscious practice of gratitude and thankfulness and it’s nourished in the mindfulness of your very own being.

As per the words of Seneca, the Stoic Philosopher:

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” 

Lesson #2: Find Peace in Surrender and Be Grateful for All That You Have

In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle writes:

“Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life.”

There tends to be a negative connotation with the idea of surrender in the sense that it implies defeat, giving up, and becoming sluggish. But that’s not the meaning of surrender.

True surrender is to simply accept the present moment as it is and without any doubt or reservation. It is to relinquish all inner emotional and mental resistance to what is, right here, right now.

True surrender is to yield to the flow of life.

This is incredibly powerful when things go wrong in life because that’s the only time when the gap between our new reality and our expectation grows. And it’s in that new space where frustration, resentment, and pain manifest.

This is what Nataly Kogan refers to as ‘The Valley of Suffering’ in Happier Now: “The space between how something is and how we have decided it should be.”

That gap is entirely your own creation, and you close it with practicing surrender.

Surrender does not mean that you should passively put up with your situation and do nothing about it. No, it means you should simply accept where you are at this very moment, and then consciously go about creating the changes you want to see.

Ramesh exemplifies that art of surrender—accept where you are and work toward what you want. As he went on to explain in his interview:

“On the day the photograph was taken, I was just thinking about everyone back home. It is hard to be away from my family, especially because of the pandemic… I am going to take leave in August to travel home to see my wife and family.”

What Matters to You

Happiness is a deep well that lives in you.

You can reconnect to it once you learn how to consciously surrender to the moment and be accepting and grateful or all that is.

So take a moment to be thankful for what you have today. Take a moment every day to do it. In the mornings and the evenings, because your practice of gratitude can be as limited as the sky is vast and blue.

And while you’re at it, draw your own heart to express love for all that you already have in your life today. Maybe that can also be your way of singing and saying thanks, which brings me to another thought: Perhaps the birds don’t sing to be happy, perhaps they are happy because they sing.