For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 1 Timothy 6: 6-8 NKJV.
A recent bout of cold and fever threw me up against the wall of physical frailty and the importance of good health. It also forced me to admit how negligent I have been in taking care of my health. Always pushing my body to its limit. Never caring for its needs. Glossing over my small appetite, poor diet and easy drinking. Living but not alive. I read a novel once. In it, the main character in the novel had just lost the love of her life, and a close family friend had used these words to describe her friend's state - a heart can be broken but it goes on beating just the same.
"Have I stopped living?" "Why have I not taken care of my body, my health all these years?" I have no answers. My body has become accustomed to it. Recently, a likeminded colleague shared a Times article with me. Issued on Aug 23, 2007, it was titled, "Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith", an article written by David Van Biema. The writer mentioned in the article that in the book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday), which consisted mainly of correspondences between Mother Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of sixty-six years, it revealed that for the last half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever. Yet despite how she felt, she had remained dedicated to her work of caring for the poorest of the poor on the streets of
The teacher mentioned in Ecclesiastes 9: 4-6 that, "Still, anyone selected out for life has hope, for, as they say, "A living dog is better than a dead lion." The living at least know something, even if it's only that they're going to die. But the dead know nothing and get nothing. Their loves, their hates, yes, even their dreams, are long gone. There's not a trace of them left in the affairs of this earth." Having said that, he went on to proclaim how we ought to live, "Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes – God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Don't skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange for the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! Ecclesiastes 9: 7-9 The Message.
We live such hurried lives in this age that we hardly have time to breathe, not to mention rest and be quiet. Sit down and have a proper meal and conversation with our loved ones. Kids need to be loved, encouraged, cuddled and disciplined. Elders need to have someone to talk to, to walk with them as their body and mind fail (it can be scary when joints start creaking and stiffening up and eyesight start failing), when they spend more time recollecting memories of the past than they make plans for the future. I spent last Saturday resting my rather wasted body at home, with the gray skies adding a touch of surrealism to it. As I sat in the hall with my parents watching a TV drama series on the Qing Dynasty, I was strangely contented to share that moment with them as we talk about the characters in that show and what not. Moments, life is made up of them.
Shalom,
Sv ".+
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