Skip to main content

Mud puddle illness

"Get some rest. If you haven't got your health, then you haven't got anything." Count Rugen

 Truly, if you don't have your health it's hard to appreciate the rest. An axiom of life most have experienced to some degree.

 Of course, many crushing waves can pummel us in the sea of life, taking their toll; rocking, upturning and threatening to sink us. But we cope, clinging more dearly to what remains afloat of ours lives. 



Yet being robbed of health is more like a flood than a wave, a simultaneous inundation over our whole playing field. Whether it be from the pain, the delirium, or simply profound exhaustion, we no longer have the physical, nor often mental, ability to enjoy anything else of life. We simply breathe and hope. Of course, we're talking disabling illness here, the kind that sweeps you up and lays you very low. Not just for a few days or weeks, but months, years, longer...

From my own experience of lengthy and at times debilitating illness, I've had a few things reaffirmed.

Firstly, you never know when incapacitating illness might claim you. I was sitting at my computer, tired but otherwise fine, when an internal plug was pulled. A sudden sinking feeling in my chest and the abundant energy, which I so took for granted, drained away in less time than it takes to draw a breath. I collapsed. In my case, twelve weeks later I'm able to attempt a return to work. For many, that crossroad in their lives is one they will never return to. For them, illness will permanently claim them, diminishing incrementally or rapidly the pleasures and opportunities of this life, unto death.

Which hammers home the thought, Am I where I want to be when that happens? 

If illness should take you tomorrow, will it leave you regretting your choices up to that point; especially in regard your deepest held convictions, relationships & heart-goals. 

However, severe illness can also be a God-send. Sound contradictory to my first point? How can illness be a blessing?... When it opens our eyes to those convictions, relationships and heart-goals that we know are precious, but have been long neglecting. Too often those weighty matters of faith, hope and love -which we internally acknowledge so vital- get waylaid by the vices of ease, lust and instant gratification. Our relationship with God, spouse, children and friends, withers, while we satisfy the baser diversions in life; only to our loss.

Better a good ending than a good beginning, I say. Let the outset be as harsh and marred with challenges and upsets as can be. As long as at the end I find my hearts desire and die content. How sad to wallow happily in the shallow mud puddles of life's beginning only to find yourself staring, at life's end, across the ocean that was meant to be swum. Now, too late, the joys and beauty on the far shore squandered for the drying mud between your toes. 

What are your mud puddles? Will it take illness to dry them up and remind you of what life's really all about? If that's what it takes, I wish you ill-health.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Navigating Nuances

Religious or otherwise , all men possess an inherent moral compass. A conscience that either accuses or defends within them. However, possessing a compass is not the only prerequisite to morality.  To be truly moral, one must have confidence that their compass points true, and then, by virtue of trust, let it lead them. I've read that magnetic compasses are easily offset by local magnetic fields, and that these nuances of deviation have lost many a man to sea. Thankfully, this interference can be neutralised by placing correcting magnets around the compass. Analogously , the Bible tells us that we live in a morally hazardous world, where man's fallen nature interferes with his moral compass tempting deviance from what is good in Gods sight; and many a man has been lost due to it. However, to neutralise this influence, God has made provision through Christ, and his word. Together they become, for us, the correcting magnets for our moral compass. Many cite the evil th...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Conundrum of Contentment

Someone once related a story to me regarding a memorable highlight of their oblivious youth. Oblivious because what they perceived as the highlight, was in fact one of the most stressful periods of their parents life.  It was the 1950's, a time of widespread decline throughout Africa. Having lost his job, the father was forced to sell the family home. With nothing left but car and caravan, and no choice but to travel the country in search of livelihood, daily necessities soon became more a prayer than an expectation. Yet the parents worries were their own. For the two sons, life had become an adventure, a seemingly endless holiday, travelling by caravan no less. Schooling was on hold, playtime was plentiful. Therefore, with food and clothing these two boys were content. Doesn't perspective change everything, not least of all our experience of contentment. Discontent is a common sensation, regardless of age, gender, or income. But it...
Post a Comment
Read more

Influence

It is not necessarily the great things we hope to achieve that will impact others most, but the consistent manner in which we perform the everyday things. When reminiscing, very few find they've lived the dream anticipated in youth; grey hairs as much a sign of angst as wisdom it seems. Yet years do add their age-etched counsel into our lives, and few more poignantly than the effects of our influence. In fact nothing proves this more forcefully than times passage. We see it in our children as they age, unwittingly imitating us; faults and all. We see it in other relationships, both thriving and dead, dependent upon the effort we put into them. We see it even in our own bodies, the undeniable testimony of decades of care and/or neglect. As historically insignificant as we might think ourselves, our influence will continue long after we are gone. For most of us that influence will not be established via news worthy feats, but in going through the mundane motions ...
Post a Comment
Read more