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Saint Tikhon picturesquely depicted Happiness 15 in his article: flowing water (Secret Spirit. Part 11). Like water that flows by, so is our life and everything that happens in life (both happiness and misfortune). We see that the water in the river constantly flows and passes, and everything floating at the top of the water passes. This is our life, and with life all prosperity and ill-being will pass by. I was not there for several years, and other creatures. Thy hand create me, O Lord! I was a baby, and that passed away; I was a boy, and that passed away; I was a young man, and that passed away from me. I was a perfect and strong husband, but all this has passed. Now my hair is turning gray, and I am exhausted from old age; but even this is passing, and I am approaching the end, and I will go on the path of all the earth. I was born to die; I die so that I can live. Remember me, Lord, in Your kingdom! I was healthy and sick, and again healthy and again sick; and then it passed. Was in prosperity and not in prosperity; time passed, and in time everything passed away. I was honored - people revered and worshiped me: that time has passed, and I don’t see it. I was cheerful, I was sad, I rejoiced and cried: days pass, joy passes, and joy and sadness... Such is the world! Such inconstancy! This is our life in the world! A poor man is poor from his mother's womb even to his grave! Born with crying; lives in the world like a ship sails in the sea; now it ascends, now it descends, now it rises, now it descends, and it dies crying... Just as under the sky, now there is a bucket, now it is cloudy, now there is bad weather and a storm: so every person happens to be, now in prosperity, now in trouble, now in fear, now in peace, now in sadness, now in joy. But as days and hours pass, so every happiness and misfortune passes with them... The life of the future century will not be like this, as the word of God and St. Faith... Note Rev. Eugene, biography of the saint. Tikhon, notes that this reflection has a connection with the time in which St. Tikhon fell into grief and sadness about leaving his flock. We have left in this word the spelling that was in the days of St. Tikhon.