This situation renews my fight to not ever give up on my quest for ultimate health - through mind, body and soul.
If there is any message I want to convey not only to myself but to others, it is this - you only get given by God one body in this lifetime.
Before we really understand the meaning of this, to be kind to ourself both physically and mentally, will we have to lose someone or something in order to find this out? And despite many of us who have lost someone as a result of bad health, has this taught us any real lessons, or are we still consuming bad food, drinking, smoking and not exercising? Do we have to lose our own health, be stripped completely bare, find ourselves mentally in the most desolate of places, in order to realise just how important it to be kind to ourselves?
It reminds me of part of a poem that someone gave me the other day:
"Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend."
~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend."
~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~
2 comments:
I love the poem. It says so very much. I am truly sad to hear of your father's failing health. There aren't any right words to express how, yes, life is all about choice and freedom of choice, as it should be - but what of the suffering of loved ones when we make a lifelong habit of bad choices? I'm not being flippant when I tell you I do understand the pain you and your family are in right now. I hold you all tenderly in my thoughts, and heart.
Ec, I certainly understand exactly what you mean - i know you faced the very same issue with your husband. My mother will spend much of her life blaming herself for allowing his health to get this bad. Tough, huh.
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