Enough's Enough!

 

One of the first things I do in the day is to wash my face in cold water. Then I look in the mirror and smile. It's not a habit, neither is it a response to my tousled appearance, though that might be appropriate. The smile is spontaneous. It's simply good to be alive. Right from the outset of my day there is an inner joy that is inexplicable. I could easily dwell on the multiple diseased elements in my body and other problems queuing up in my day but I don't. For some inexplicable reason this is not something that I've had to work at – not consciously or directly, at least. So far I have been extremely fortunate in not having to experience much in the way of side effects as a result of my tumours – of old age, yes, but only one of my 'visitors' produces mild and intermittent discomfort. Maybe my condition puts normal day-to-day stuff into perspective, I don't know. But I don't have to hype myself up. The joy rises without the need for an external reason.

Lao Tzu* says, “The norm of the world is serenity and peace.” In considering this I recognise that although we become ill from time, most of us recover. As Grandpa Tweedy says in Olive Burns' wonderful novel 'The Cold Sassy Tree', “We gits well all the time but we don't die but once't.” Turmoil arises and subsides, wars are always followed by peace – it's a principle of life; dysfunction is an anomaly; everything returns to the norm.

Of course, that doesn't mean that we recover from illness all the time, because there are other principles of life that are at play here. One of them is that life always seeks the best that can be. If that had not been true then life would not have been able to survive and evolve for the last 4.5 billion years. But, in seeking the best that can be there is another principle here: Life does not impose itself by force. Lao Tzu explains, “It is heaven's way to conquer without striving, to get responses without speaking, to induce the people by not summoning . . .” It seems that life doesn't make things happen but enables things to happen by wisdom and allurement. It is no respecter of persons. The principle of 'the best that can be' applies to everyone. Yet we can influence the outcomes of that principle.

This is my trust and my hope, based on the assurance of what we can observe of how life manifests in the living. Another is that it is in the nature of nature to nurture. Every living thing is nurtured for survival and, in turn, nurtures other living things. Life lives off of life. For us to live today other living things have to die and be consumed. Yet life always provides sufficient abundance, though not a superabundance. It is our kind that seek a superabundance which, as a result, has sown dysfunction and anomaly among all other life forms. One of the main sources of dysfunctional superabundance is obviously our excessive consumption and our excessive fear of death. Whereas we are naturally endowed by life to survive through the principles of nurture and 'the best that can be', we have perverted these natural endowments through failing to recognise the greatest wisdom, that of having enough. As the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “There is . . . a time to be born and a time to die . . .” Yet our fear of death often forces us to extend our lives long beyond our 'use by' date.

Life seems to operate on the basis of principle rather than law alone. Quantum scientists speak of 'uncertainty' and 'probability'. It is as if, in holding to the principle of 'the best that can be', we can help maintain the balance between uncertainty and probability. In recognising the principles of life and actualising them through implementing healthy lifestyles (my MEDS) we can have a major influence in the outcomes of our illnesses and treatments.

My love and best wishes to you all.

Brian

* The legendary Chinese author of the 2500 year old Tao Te Ching