A 20 year old boy gets hit by a lorry on his way from college, and never makes it home to meet his mother. A once strong and sturdy man lays motionless with his eyes rolled inwards, losing the physical battle to cancer. A woman who was once the life of the party cries herself to sleep, unable to even turn her body over or dress herself, due to stroke.
It is overwhelming, when you can only watch but not do a thing to alleviate the agony of the people you were so used to seeing smiling. To just look with teary eyes, and feel the suffering with your heart - makes you wonder if you would be able to bear the pain, were it you in their place. It leaves you speechless, knowing words could never fully comfort such misery.
A lot of times, we hear people say, “There’s too much work to do… can’t finish! Die, man! Or in moments of anger, “Go and die! I wish you were dead!” Sometimes, out of rejection and hopelessness, people say, “I’d rather kill myself…” Of course, these words are uttered without much thought and out of the physical context.
But when you actually watch a person dying and you run away because you can’t bear to see it anymore; or see the torment diseases inflict on fragile bodies, to the extent that they truly wish they weren’t alive - it adds gravity to the word ‘die.’ You see life from a different perspective.
Yes, we know that people are dying everyday. We are aware of accidents and illnesses; we understand the brevity of life. Yet, we tend to enclose ourselves in our own world while we are actually pretty fine, magnify our tiny problems, do whatever we want while we are self sufficient, or let god-given energy go to waste due to meaninglessness - forgetting the things that really matter.
Observing the frailty of the human form, I count my blessings and name them one by one. The things we often take for granted:
1. Sanity – simply being able to think, and not roam the streets in rags
2. Consciousness – being able to wake up every morning, knowing there are problems, looking for solutions - it’s another new day!
3. Mobility – getting out of bed each morning to brush my teeth, pat some powder on my cheeks, put on my own clothes and drive myself to work.
4. Sight – looking at the blue sky and greenery of the golf course on my way to the office, even staring at my computer screen right now!
5. Taste – bitter, sweet or sour, however delicious or miserable the food – I can taste, chew and swallow! I can enjoy eating!
6. Smell – the scent of my favorite peppermint tea, and the fragrant perfume I dab on my neck and wrists!
7. Touch – to touch the forehead of someone dear and feel if there’s a fever, to hold the hands of those you care about…it’s a blessing!
8. Colleagues, staff & acquaintances – whether I see them every day, or only once; many that I may never get to know personally, yet smile at each morning while we ‘punch card’; or people I meet in an unexpected function - they matter!
9. Family - the quarrels, disappointments, the picking ons, the fun and the unbreakable love – in the end, whatever happens, we’re all we have!
10. Close friends – the ones who irritate, argue and accompany, make me laugh and smile, scold me when I’m wrong and catch me when I fall – love them forever!
As I think of those who are no longer with us, or others that wish time would pass sooner, I remember that we can never know whether we’ll grow up to be a hundred, and live to love it.
So, I come on bended knees to tell God, “I’m sorry, I haven’t thanked You enough…I have not been truly grateful…For You, I have not done enough…Please give me the chance…”
It is overwhelming, when you can only watch but not do a thing to alleviate the agony of the people you were so used to seeing smiling. To just look with teary eyes, and feel the suffering with your heart - makes you wonder if you would be able to bear the pain, were it you in their place. It leaves you speechless, knowing words could never fully comfort such misery.
A lot of times, we hear people say, “There’s too much work to do… can’t finish! Die, man! Or in moments of anger, “Go and die! I wish you were dead!” Sometimes, out of rejection and hopelessness, people say, “I’d rather kill myself…” Of course, these words are uttered without much thought and out of the physical context.
But when you actually watch a person dying and you run away because you can’t bear to see it anymore; or see the torment diseases inflict on fragile bodies, to the extent that they truly wish they weren’t alive - it adds gravity to the word ‘die.’ You see life from a different perspective.
Yes, we know that people are dying everyday. We are aware of accidents and illnesses; we understand the brevity of life. Yet, we tend to enclose ourselves in our own world while we are actually pretty fine, magnify our tiny problems, do whatever we want while we are self sufficient, or let god-given energy go to waste due to meaninglessness - forgetting the things that really matter.
Observing the frailty of the human form, I count my blessings and name them one by one. The things we often take for granted:
1. Sanity – simply being able to think, and not roam the streets in rags
2. Consciousness – being able to wake up every morning, knowing there are problems, looking for solutions - it’s another new day!
3. Mobility – getting out of bed each morning to brush my teeth, pat some powder on my cheeks, put on my own clothes and drive myself to work.
4. Sight – looking at the blue sky and greenery of the golf course on my way to the office, even staring at my computer screen right now!
5. Taste – bitter, sweet or sour, however delicious or miserable the food – I can taste, chew and swallow! I can enjoy eating!
6. Smell – the scent of my favorite peppermint tea, and the fragrant perfume I dab on my neck and wrists!
7. Touch – to touch the forehead of someone dear and feel if there’s a fever, to hold the hands of those you care about…it’s a blessing!
8. Colleagues, staff & acquaintances – whether I see them every day, or only once; many that I may never get to know personally, yet smile at each morning while we ‘punch card’; or people I meet in an unexpected function - they matter!
9. Family - the quarrels, disappointments, the picking ons, the fun and the unbreakable love – in the end, whatever happens, we’re all we have!
10. Close friends – the ones who irritate, argue and accompany, make me laugh and smile, scold me when I’m wrong and catch me when I fall – love them forever!
As I think of those who are no longer with us, or others that wish time would pass sooner, I remember that we can never know whether we’ll grow up to be a hundred, and live to love it.
So, I come on bended knees to tell God, “I’m sorry, I haven’t thanked You enough…I have not been truly grateful…For You, I have not done enough…Please give me the chance…”
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