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Quote of the Day: Happiness Is Inside
“Happiness isn’t something that depends on our surroundings. It’s something we make inside ourselves.” — Cor ten Boom (wife of Casper ten Boom and mother of Betsie and Corrie ten Boom quoted in Corrie’s book The Hiding Place.)
For the Group Writing series, I’ve been doing a set of posts about the amazing Ten Booms, a family who worked with the Dutch Underground to protect the Jews around them during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Casper, Betsie, and Corrie ten Boom have been honored at the Yad Vashem in Israel and recognized as part of the Righteous Among the Nations for the work they did.
Cor ten Boom. the matriarch of the family, was not a part of that work. She died in 1921 – long before the events of World War II took place. Nevertheless, she too was amazing. For example, when three of her sisters needed a place to live, she and her husband provided it. In addition. When someone was hungry or needed comforting, she took them food or made them something. When she heard of someone who was shut-in, she wrote them a note. And she did it all despite her own chronic poor health and tight financial circumstances. In her book, Corrie says that thanks to her mother’s example, “It never occurred to any of us children that we ourselves were poor; ‘the poor’ were people you took baskets to.”
The opening quote was part of a conversation Cor had with her daughter when one of those sisters she shared her home with was dying. Corrie wanted to know if there was anything they could do to help Tante (the Dutch word for “aunt”) Bep. After all, wasn’t it sad that she was having to spend her last days in a place that she hated instead of a place that she loved? (Throughout her life, Corrie had only heard her aunt complain about her sister’s family and praise a family she had worked for as a governess years before.)
Cor’s response?
Bep has been just as happy here with us — no more and no less — than she was anywhere else. Do you know when she started praising the Wallers so highly? The day she left them. As long as she was there, she had nothing but complaints. The Wallers couldn’t compare with the van Hooks where she’d been before. But at the van Hooks she’d actually been miserable. Happiness isn’t something that depends on our surroundings, Corrie. It’s something we make inside ourselves.
It’s something we make inside ourselves. Seven years later, Cor was a shining example of the truth of that statement. That year, she had a stroke which rendered her incapable of doing most of the things she had been accustomed to doing. Although she could move around a bit, she was left with the ability to say only three words — “yes”, “no”, and “Corrie”.
In her book, Corrie says:
To communicate, [Mama] and I invented a little game, something like Twenty Questions. “Corrie,” she would say.
“What is it, Mama? You’re thinking of someone!”
“Yes.”
“Someone in the family?”
“No.”
They would go back and forth with questions like that until Corrie figured out who her mother was thinking about. After that, Corrie would write a note to the person telling him/her that her mother had been thinking about them.
At the close I always put the pen in her stiffened fingers so she could sign it. An angular scrawl was all that was left of her beautiful curling signature, but it was soon recognized and loved all over Haarlem.
Loved and recognized all over Haarlem — a signature from a semi-paralyzed invalid who refused to give up and feel sorry for herself when life turned her lemonade into lemons. Instead, until the day she died, Cor ten Boom continued to share her love with others and to find her happiness inside. Definitely an amazing woman.
Cor ten Boom and family. (L to R: Daughter Nollie, daughter Corrie, husband Casper, Cor herself, son Willem, daughter Betsie.)
I have heard of Corrie, Betsy, and Casper, but I don’t recall seeing anything written about Cor. Not surprising that she was also a remarkable individual.
Has anyone ever, of any class or race or religion or anything else been helped by considering themselves as victims?
Adam Carolla is pretty much a business oriented libertarian with many black comedian friends and he has loudly and persuasively said that, “I don’t know anybody who is successful who considers themselves a victim.” He knows tons of different people of all sexis, sexualities, and races and nobody considers themselves a victim.
My Dad is he same, he works with about every color and lots of homosexuals and the most successful people disdain victimhood.
It’s hard to describe a Quote of the Day without another great quote.
This conversation is an entry in our Quote of the Day Series. We have 12 openings left on the April Schedule. If this reminds you of a quotation that is important to you, why not sign up today?
What a great post!!
This is certainly one of life’s great lessons, and so well taught by Corrie Ten Boom. Her life story is an inspiration to many. I highly recommend her books.
Life is largely what we make of it: even in bad circumstances we get to choose our response. That is true freedom, the freedom not to have our attitudes controlled by others or even the vicissitudes of life.
It’s a lesson I’m still learning most every day.
Another thing, a lot of my troubles have resulted from my own bad choices. And I just hate to blame myself. Maybe I should offer the same leniency to others?
@joelb – I suspect Cor is often overlooked because she wasn’t alive and therefore wasn’t part of the events that took place in The Hiding Place. The book and movie is undoubtedly what has kept the other three in people’s memories. But yes, I think she was just as remarkable as the others.
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@henrycastigne – No, I don’t believe anyone has ever been helped by considering him/herself a victim – certainly not on a regular, on-going basis. Because if you see yourself as a victim, there’s nothing you can do to change your situation.
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@vectorman – That’s another good quote too.
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@okiesailor – I agree. It is a wonderful lesson to learn, and the Ten Booms were an amazing example of it.