# The husband's photo in her handbag

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Joke
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-joke-husbands-photo-in-handbag
- Themes: humour, patience, marriage, perspective
- Life situations: long marriage, hard times, needing perspective

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Married 30 or 40 years, a woman always carries her husband's photo in her handbag. Whenever life gets really difficult she takes it out, looks at him and says: “If I can endure that, I can endure anything.”

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

that um story of that woman who who um always kept a photograph of her husband in her in her purse you know in her s of handbag and they were been married for about 30 40 years and she always carried a photo PHH of her husband around with her to use in times of difficulty and trouble because whenever life was real problem whenever it was just so difficult she would open up her handbag and take out the picture of the man she'd been married to for 30 years and she looked at him and said if I can enure that I can enure anything

## Teaching point

(Told for perspective: we can learn to put up with, and even embrace, almost anything.)

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Married thirty years, she carried her husband's photo for hard days, took it out, and reminded herself that if she could endure him she could endure anything. It's a cheeky joke, yet it works on perspective. Remember what you've already come through. With a cool head and a warm heart, today's trouble usually turns out to be smaller.

## Source

- [On Patience | Ajahn Brahm | 26-06-2009](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl0Lyxi8nbQ) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 6:10 to 6:58: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl0Lyxi8nbQ&t=370s