GOOD HEALTH AND ENOUGH REST

October 29, 2015

I planned to rest the whole day at home today, but sadly, there are still some errands to do, so I have to settle with being only slightly well and doing the best I can in order to both do my duties and strive for healing.

Fortunately, my bouts with these things are just like vaccination.  I only do get them once a year.  Last year it was around the middle of the year, and thankfully this year, it happens before the year-end so there would be a lot of stamina for the ‘more work ahead’.

It’s times like these that I really appreciate investing in one’s good health.  After all, our bodies are really the only thing we have in order to face life sane and happy.  No matter how much money a person makes, if he/she is often sick enough not to enjoy them, then who benefits from that?  On the other hand, if a person is always hard up on cash but the family is healthy and happy, then that person is truly rich. 

The same goes for the mind and the soul.  A healthy mind and soul sees and abides by the truth, lives each moment in love and gratefulness to GOD and to the people He has sent to accompany the person in his journey through life.  And a thankful and loving heart is indeed the best treasure one could ever hope for.

I am often reminded of the funny short story entitled “My Father Goes to Court”, by one of our great national artists Mr. Carlos Bulosan, which I have read when I was in the elementary, and often reread until I went to college.  Mr. CB is like the Clarence Day of the Philippines.  He wrote a lot about family life and that has endeared him to many of his fans in ‘Philippine Literature in English’.  He is on the same league as Nick Joaquin, Leon Ma. Guerrero, Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil and many others whose names I’ve forgotten after almost three decades but whose ideas and stories and life lessons still form part of my psyche.

Anyway the story goes that the father was accused by the rich neighbour of stealing the aroma of the food being cooked in the rich man’s house, so that even if the children of the poor father only had vegetables to eat, they are still healthier than the children of the rich man who often had pork and meat.  The father appeared in court after being summoned, and paid for such ridiculous crime by soliciting for coins from all those in attendance during the hearing and letting them put these in his sombrero, then jingling the coins all around the courtroom, thereby paying the ‘stolen aroma’ with the ‘sound of money’.  What the rich man did not realize that the poor father’s family may not be eating all the nice meats and dainties like he did, but they were full of love and happiness.  The narrator realized that their family is richer because their father truly loves them, and expresses these all with his natural sense of humour.

Such is the value of good health.  The Bible says that ‘a merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones’.  It doesn’t say nobody who is happy gets sick.  It just says that yes, we could get sick sometimes, because it is a natural part of living, in order to let our bodies adjust to the seasons and the changes within our internal systems.  Getting sick too is a signal that our bodies need to rest once in a while amidst the frenetic pace and the humdrum of everyday living.  But a happy heart indeed gives one hope that no matter the circumstance--in sickness and want--there will be better and rosier times ahead.