Hallelujah Life

My ruminations about life en-route acceptance

I had to undergo a surgery recently. I am not the first person to undergo one, and neither am I the last. However, this was my first medical procedure ever. Needless to say, I wasn’t excited at the prospect. Overall I am a healthy person without any chronic medical conditions. I don’t take any medications — not even occasional Tylenols / Aspirin. So going for a surgery felt like kind of a big deal (to me). I did get a month’s heads-up about the impending surgery, to plan for things. In this month, in my mind, I went through all five stages to get to a graceful acceptance. The following is an enumeration of my realizations through these stages — about us, about how we live, and about life in general.

1. Only thing permanent in life is change, so always count your blessings: Life will throw curve balls, and mostly when you least expect it. Embrace this fact. You will have to adapt to those. There is no escape from it. This is as true as the fact that we need oxygen to live. Change is tough. The adaptation to this change will become easier if you make it a practice to always count your blessings, have gratitude for them, relish every bit of them and be a blessing in someone else’s life. This practice will help you sustain through any difficult time in life. Counting your blessings is the only dam that can curtail the chaos caused by curve balls from life.
2. Our body KNOWS how to self-preserve, so respect it and treat it well : In today’s era many of us, for most part, believe that we can accomplish anything we work for. With smart/hard work, dedication and making right use of opportunities coming our way, we feel we can be successful in almost everything. We tend to, however, forget that there is no “I” / the “doer” without the outer shell called the body. If something goes wrong with our body, it has the capacity to derail all other plans. Good news is that the human body, though complex, is also a well orchestrated machine. It is enigmatic, to say the least, to see how our body reacts in an effort to self preserve when faced with adversity. It is only befitting hence, to take care of the body, and nurture it, so that it works in tandem with us and our goals.
3. We should NOT and need NOT put pause on life — ever : I read a quote as a kid (which only now do I fully understand) — Life is like riding a bicycle, you don’t fall off unless you stop pedaling. It is OUR life, and the LIMITED TIME we have been given on earth that we are talking about here! We ought to decide what things in life get how much of that pie. While health issues can be overwhelming, bear in mind though that life around is moving at its pace irrespective. We can sit back in a shell, brood over any problem / issue and let everything else pass by, or own it up and open our arms for a warm and loving embrace to life. The downside of the former approach is, when we are ready to dive back in, the world around has moved ahead already. The latter approach on the other hand will above everything else, also help lead a full and meaningful life
4. It is only HUMAN to be needing help : They say that a harsh reality that a child has to come to terms with while growing up is the realization that his/her parents are not super-humans and do have limitations of the mortal form. Nobody tells us that another reality we have to accept in life, as we progress on the journey of adulthood, is that we also have those limitations. Hence, it is OK to need help in life sometimes, and ask for it. We shouldn’t be too harsh on ourselves when that happens. We ought to take help when we need it, so that we can get back to the point where we can be of help to our fellow humans
5. The right of judgement best rests with the Judges in courthouses please : We don’t know what battles others had to fight to reach where they are, and hence we DON’T have a right to judge. PERIOD. Making conclusions about someone’s lifestyle because of his/her medical conditions and then rationalizing him/her having that condition is a disservice to our fellow humans. If you have to figure out how you can avoid getting that condition — figure that out independently. At the same time, while there could be lessons to learn from your health condition, you don’t have to be too harsh on yourself. Just learn what needs to be learned, and move on. There are several factors which are beyond the influence of an individual which have a role to play in overall health and well-being (one example being genetics), so be aware that most of the time it could be a futile endeavor to even try to answer “why me”

We are all students in the school of life, each one having a question paper from a different set. Our question papers are set according to the skills that need to be nurtured within each of us individually. This sets the tune of our life. Whatever tune life plays, we ought to face the music. There is no choice. We will hence best serve ourselves, by going with the flow and by accepting life with loving kindness towards ourselves.