Lessons From Weakness - Part Two
My previous blog may have looked like a pity party, but it was supposed to be a lighthearted account of why my blog went dormant for a year. I was virtually blind in one eye for a year, and then I was given a second chance at seeing again and I am compelled to wax.
See the photo journey above. I promised I would ruminate on the lessons of that process, so here are two things I learned from being visually disabled:
1) I used to laugh at old men who said, "If you have your health you have everything". That's simplistic for sure, but the spirit of it is right. When we skip through life with good health, and then start losing it, we are drawn to philosophical and spiritual reflection.
After we have worn out out loved ones with complaints, we find ourselves alone, with something/someone we call God. Simple maladies, much less major issues, transform people into pray-ers. Adversity has a way of making us pray, often for immediate or long term wellness. Unfortunately, when we are well, we forget to express gratitude for good health in equal proportion to our cursing, crying and begging God for relief when we have the flu.
My book (listed above for sale) gets into the fervent nature of our praying when things are bad, and also suggests we migrate away from prayer when all is well. I hate to be crass, but my dad used to tell me when he was getting old that he thanked God every time he had a good bowel movement. He knew how miserable he was when his digestive system shut down, so he wasn't trying to be funny at all. Sure, there are many other things to thank God for that are less distasteful, but his point was well taken: when you have your health, you have everything!
When we aren't working well, nothing else has the capacity to shift our focus from our misery and discomfort. Some get a really bad draw in life and develop terminal illnesses far too early. Possibly some deaths are brought on by poor living habits, but sometimes joggers drop dead without explanation as well.
Exercise your gratitude every day, and when you need an infusion of power when you feel weak, it will be there for you. If you are well, stay well and if you are not, do everything you can to get well!
That goes for your body, soul and spirit. (I write about the considerable differences between those three things in my book for sale above.)
Note: In a future blog I will write about the difference between gratitude and thanksgiving.
2) Another old saying leads me to my second lesson: Make hay while the sun shines. We have no guarantee that we will have the tomorrows we hope for. All of us have loved ones who have left us far too soon, and when we understand our mortality, we are wise to reflect on our legacy.
This thought speaks directly to the footprints we leave behind. I left some seriously creepy footprints from one part of my life, so I purposefully chose to leave my children and grandchildren better imprints, something positive, other than money or quickly fading memories.
One of my greatest achievements in life is that I really wrote and published "my book" (listed above for sale). It's an audacious thing to do, but I did it anyway. It's a lasting memory of who I am, or who I was at that time. I toy with writing another someday, just to show the changing nature of my ongoing journey, but it took three years of daily, backbreaking writing to finish it, so the thought of doing another one scares me. Maybe that's why I blog.
In the Dedication I tell everyone I was motivated to do the heavy lifting by Barbara, my wife, and my children. I left them something amazing they can have and hold long after I'm gone. The memories of our good and bad times will wane, so I really love knowing that when I am ashes, they have something tangible that will be there as long as the Library of Congress lasts.
I was here and I can prove it with something more accessible than my neglected tombstone. I don't know if I have more hay to bail, but if I don't get any more put in the barn, I did this one very good harvest. Sadly as I age, there are far too many cloudy days where the sun is not as bright as it used to be for making hay.
Keep looking for your positive lasting legacy, and don't let the clouds keep you from achieving it.
That's enough for now. I would love your comments and stories of your legacies, but I fear the settings on this blog mitigate against that. I'll check.
Jack
