My dad had a near-death experience when he was young – his attitude towards life planted the seeds for my own approach of challenging circumstances.
I have completed my final full day at the hospital. Tomorrow, I receive my final infusion and then I will return home. One of the nurses summed it up quite nicely: “Well I hope that we will never see you here ever again!”
My parents once again stopped by this afternoon, carrying drinks and snacks to break up the monotony of the hospital.
Over the course of this treatment, I have come to realise just how much my parents have laid the foundation for the path I was going to embark on later in my life.
My mum lost her own mother when she was still a teenager. She had to basically replace her as mother for her two younger siblings. As a result, she became an immensely caring person. However, at the same time, she didn’t let life pass her by. She participated and did very well in beauty contests. Her reason? Because the top prizes typically were paid holidays. She wanted to travel, but didn’t have too much money so it seemed like the perfect deal. Through one such contest, she got to travel all the way to Japan.
My dad, meanwhile, had the misfortune of standing on a huge tank as it exploded underneath him. He was hurled across the factory he worked in and rushed to hospital. His state was critical. It was, by all accounts, a near-death experience. But in the end, this was not meant to be the thing that took him out in this life.
For as long as I’ve known him, my dad has had a fairly “light” attitude towards life. Enjoy things. Drink the good wine. Don’t take stuff too seriously. Sing. Laugh.
A near-death experience like the one he had often leads people to realise something that takes others years of meditation and daily practice: fully realise the impermanence of life. Not just knowing it intellectually. Actually living and experiencing it.
Life changes all the time. And none of us know how long we’ve got. The one thing we do know is that we’re going to die. None of us are getting out of this alive. Some people are shocked hearing someone talk about our own mortality in this way. But let me assure you that actually living this reality out is neither depressing nor hopeless. On the contrary, it makes life rich in a way that you have never known before.
Aside from their love and support, of course, my parents gave me two incredibly precious gifts in this life: they never placed any expectations on me aside from doing what makes me happy (whatever that may be) and they could not give a toss about what other people thought about them.
Let go. Relax. Stop trying to fix everything. That’s all there is to it.
Thanks for reading, everyone. Like last time, I think I’ll take a little break from these posts once I’m home, but I will update you at some point.
May you be healthy and happy!
just thoughts 