I just have read a story about someone who discovered that life is both more and less than we hoped for. The title of the book was "Learning to Fall". This book was filled with words of wisdom and they were inspired.
The author, Philip Simmon, has been diagnosed with a fatal condition known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. He would be probably dead within a few years. Of course, he felt shock at first, but then he decided to face up to the fact. Knowing that his days were numbered, he started to asked with new urgency, the sort of questions from : "What is my life' true purpose?" to "Should I reorganize my closets?". Then, he realized that he had learned something by asking them. He had learned that a fuller consciousness of his own mortality has been the best guide to being more fully alive. He also learned that he dealt most fruitfully with loss by accepting the fact that he will lose everything one day.
So he started to accepting himself by accepting the whole package, the whole sour and sweet that he is. He stopped seeing the world as a "problem" to be solved, when instead he opened his hearts to the mysery of his common suffering, then he found himself in a world transformed by love. Even though he couldn't walk anymore, he still tried to enjoy his life by doing a lot of thing for other people with love.
Be a full bucket
Drawn up the dark way of a well
Then lifted out
Into the light
[The Sufi Poet-Jalal Al Din Rumi]
The author, Philip Simmon, has been diagnosed with a fatal condition known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. He would be probably dead within a few years. Of course, he felt shock at first, but then he decided to face up to the fact. Knowing that his days were numbered, he started to asked with new urgency, the sort of questions from : "What is my life' true purpose?" to "Should I reorganize my closets?". Then, he realized that he had learned something by asking them. He had learned that a fuller consciousness of his own mortality has been the best guide to being more fully alive. He also learned that he dealt most fruitfully with loss by accepting the fact that he will lose everything one day.
So he started to accepting himself by accepting the whole package, the whole sour and sweet that he is. He stopped seeing the world as a "problem" to be solved, when instead he opened his hearts to the mysery of his common suffering, then he found himself in a world transformed by love. Even though he couldn't walk anymore, he still tried to enjoy his life by doing a lot of thing for other people with love.
Be a full bucket
Drawn up the dark way of a well
Then lifted out
Into the light
[The Sufi Poet-Jalal Al Din Rumi]
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