“Life is a hard fight, a struggle, a wrestling with the principle of evil, hand to hand, foot to foot. Every inch of the way is disputed. The night is given us to take breath, to pray, to drink deep at the fountain of power. The day, to use the strength which has given us, to go forth to work with it till the evening.”
That statement comes from the mouth of Florence Nightingale, the woman who was credited for starting the nurse profession. She had lived a life worth emulating. She cared for people in order for them to go on living.
“We may not prefer a world in which sorrow always seems to be so close to joy; in which heartbreak always seems so close to happiness; in which doubt always seems to be so close to faith. But this is the kind of world we’re in,” Jerold Savory notes.
A man is born into this world with nothing – “birthday suit” as they call it. Parents take care of the child, feed him, and guide him each day. They also teach him how to interact with other people and ask for help from the Almighty.
Then, he becomes his own person. He goes to school, looks for job, and gets married. Before he knows it, he has his own child. Just like his parents before, he has to guide his own kid. Such is the circle of life.
“Life becomes an exciting adventure when we expect at least one pleasant surprise each day; when we show our gratitude freely and unashamedly; when we strive to do at least one anonymous act of kindness to someone who needs it most; when we seek to discover the beauty and goodness in every person we meet,” William A. Ward says.
A priest, speaking to college students, asked the leader of group: “What are you living for?”
The student leader answered, “I am going to be an engineer.” The priest said, “I understand that is how you are going to earn your livelihood, but what are you living for?”
After thinking about the question for a moment, the student leader replied with both honesty and bewilderment: “Father, I am sorry, but I haven’t thought that through.”
The priest then asked the rest of the group with the same question. Only two out of the 30 students had seriously faced the central issue of existence: the reason for living.
Of course, each of us a reason for living: loved ones, family, work, ambition, fame, money, etc. Each strives to get what they want in life. Others may succeed in getting the prize, but there are those who also fail.
While there are those who want to continue living, there are also those who don’t want to live anymore. They think life is not worth living for anymore. A man consulted American author Norman Vincent Peale and complained that he was just fed up with everything. “You sound like you’re sick of living,” Peale said.
“Yes,” the man replied promptly. “I’d just as soon like down and die.”
That remark suggested the use of a little experiment. “I’ll tell you what to do,” Peale said. “Tomorrow morning when you get up, imagine and pretend that it is the last day you are going to live. As you lie there, trying to decide to get out of bed, tell yourself that it is the last time you are ever going to lie in that soft bed and that this is the last sleep you are ever going to wake from.”
Peale also told the man to think that everything he will do that day would be his last – from home to work to meeting people. In addition, Peale also suggested to “take a last glimpse of all the things you dislike, because soon you will be through with them for good and all.”
The man promised Peale that he would try the experiment and later he would tell the author of I’m OK, You’re OK, We’re OK the results.
The man didn’t even wait for the next day; he started at once imagining that every day was his last. On the way home, he looked out the window instead of reading the evening paper and was fascinated by the lights of the city. He really found that trip a pleasant one. Then, under a star-lit sky, along moon-bathed streets, he walked home.
Instead of using his key when he reached his door, he rang the bell. When the door opened, there in that golden light was the sweetheart he had married 35 years before.
“I just grabbed her and gave her the biggest kiss of our lives,” the man told Peale the following day. “Right then and there, I determined I was going to be alive tomorrow and the next day and as long as God would grant me.”
“We dribble away our life, little by little, in small packages – we don’t throw it away all at once,” Robert A. Cook reminded. “I have found life an enjoyable, enchanting, active, and sometimes terrifying experience, and I’ve enjoyed it completely. A lament in one ear, maybe, but always a song in the other,” Sean O’Casey rhapsodized.
The story is told of a man who set out with a pilgrim’s staff to find a certain saintly hermit to ask of him a question. When he found the hermit, he inquired, “If you had just one day to live, how would you spend that day?”
The old hermit stroked his long white beard and answered, “Well, first I would say my morning prayer. Afterward, I might fix a bit of tea and go out and weed the garden. Then, I might go down the road to visit my neighbor. Then I might take a nap.”
“Wait,” the pilgrim interrupted, “that’s the way you spend every day.”
“Of course,” replied the hermit. “Why should the last day be any different from the rest?”
“Life is currently described in one of four ways: as a journey, as a battle, as a pilgrimage, and as a race,” J. Richard Sneed explained. “Select your own metaphor, but the finishing necessity is all the same. For if life is a journey, it must be completed. If life is a battle, it must be finished. If life is a pilgrimage, it must be concluded. And if it is a race, it must be won.”
For comments, write me at henrytacio@gmail.com
That statement comes from the mouth of Florence Nightingale, the woman who was credited for starting the nurse profession. She had lived a life worth emulating. She cared for people in order for them to go on living.
“We may not prefer a world in which sorrow always seems to be so close to joy; in which heartbreak always seems so close to happiness; in which doubt always seems to be so close to faith. But this is the kind of world we’re in,” Jerold Savory notes.
A man is born into this world with nothing – “birthday suit” as they call it. Parents take care of the child, feed him, and guide him each day. They also teach him how to interact with other people and ask for help from the Almighty.
Then, he becomes his own person. He goes to school, looks for job, and gets married. Before he knows it, he has his own child. Just like his parents before, he has to guide his own kid. Such is the circle of life.
“Life becomes an exciting adventure when we expect at least one pleasant surprise each day; when we show our gratitude freely and unashamedly; when we strive to do at least one anonymous act of kindness to someone who needs it most; when we seek to discover the beauty and goodness in every person we meet,” William A. Ward says.
A priest, speaking to college students, asked the leader of group: “What are you living for?”
The student leader answered, “I am going to be an engineer.” The priest said, “I understand that is how you are going to earn your livelihood, but what are you living for?”
After thinking about the question for a moment, the student leader replied with both honesty and bewilderment: “Father, I am sorry, but I haven’t thought that through.”
The priest then asked the rest of the group with the same question. Only two out of the 30 students had seriously faced the central issue of existence: the reason for living.
Of course, each of us a reason for living: loved ones, family, work, ambition, fame, money, etc. Each strives to get what they want in life. Others may succeed in getting the prize, but there are those who also fail.
While there are those who want to continue living, there are also those who don’t want to live anymore. They think life is not worth living for anymore. A man consulted American author Norman Vincent Peale and complained that he was just fed up with everything. “You sound like you’re sick of living,” Peale said.
“Yes,” the man replied promptly. “I’d just as soon like down and die.”
That remark suggested the use of a little experiment. “I’ll tell you what to do,” Peale said. “Tomorrow morning when you get up, imagine and pretend that it is the last day you are going to live. As you lie there, trying to decide to get out of bed, tell yourself that it is the last time you are ever going to lie in that soft bed and that this is the last sleep you are ever going to wake from.”
Peale also told the man to think that everything he will do that day would be his last – from home to work to meeting people. In addition, Peale also suggested to “take a last glimpse of all the things you dislike, because soon you will be through with them for good and all.”
The man promised Peale that he would try the experiment and later he would tell the author of I’m OK, You’re OK, We’re OK the results.
The man didn’t even wait for the next day; he started at once imagining that every day was his last. On the way home, he looked out the window instead of reading the evening paper and was fascinated by the lights of the city. He really found that trip a pleasant one. Then, under a star-lit sky, along moon-bathed streets, he walked home.
Instead of using his key when he reached his door, he rang the bell. When the door opened, there in that golden light was the sweetheart he had married 35 years before.
“I just grabbed her and gave her the biggest kiss of our lives,” the man told Peale the following day. “Right then and there, I determined I was going to be alive tomorrow and the next day and as long as God would grant me.”
“We dribble away our life, little by little, in small packages – we don’t throw it away all at once,” Robert A. Cook reminded. “I have found life an enjoyable, enchanting, active, and sometimes terrifying experience, and I’ve enjoyed it completely. A lament in one ear, maybe, but always a song in the other,” Sean O’Casey rhapsodized.
The story is told of a man who set out with a pilgrim’s staff to find a certain saintly hermit to ask of him a question. When he found the hermit, he inquired, “If you had just one day to live, how would you spend that day?”
The old hermit stroked his long white beard and answered, “Well, first I would say my morning prayer. Afterward, I might fix a bit of tea and go out and weed the garden. Then, I might go down the road to visit my neighbor. Then I might take a nap.”
“Wait,” the pilgrim interrupted, “that’s the way you spend every day.”
“Of course,” replied the hermit. “Why should the last day be any different from the rest?”
“Life is currently described in one of four ways: as a journey, as a battle, as a pilgrimage, and as a race,” J. Richard Sneed explained. “Select your own metaphor, but the finishing necessity is all the same. For if life is a journey, it must be completed. If life is a battle, it must be finished. If life is a pilgrimage, it must be concluded. And if it is a race, it must be won.”
For comments, write me at henrytacio@gmail.com
