Outwit Mother Nature

Blair Hill was born a deaf mute without ears whom physicians didn't expect to hear. Yet, his father Napoleon decided to instill in his son a strong desire to hear. The man refused to accept that his offspring was deaf, and, as the child grew older, it became clear he had a slight degree of hearing. When Blair's parents decided to buy a phonograph, it was like a new beginning for their son. He clenched his teeth on the side of the case and began to learn the power of vibration and the significance of bone conduction. He grew to hear his father's voice when his lips touched the boy's mastoid bone. Napoleon diligently devised stories that aimed to inspire self-reliance, imagination and a desire to speak and hear normally. At a young age, he ventured out into streets to sell papers and revealed himself as an ambitious, resourceful businessman. Late in college, he tried a new hearing device which enabled him to hear properly for the first time. Blair Hill became motivated to create and implement a hugely successful marketing plan that helped deaf people hear. He realized his goal to facilitate the miracle of human hearing.

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible. “ - Saint Thomas Aquinas

Endings are really beginnings

Early in The Five People You Meet in Heaven, author Mitch Albom says that "all endings are also beginnings." His protagonist Eddie goes about the last 30 minutes of his life on Earth as a routine.

He is an old, wounded war veteran, who feels he had led an uninspired life. His chosen job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people identify Earthly connections to him.  They give him reason to rethink his ideas of a  "meaningless" life, and shed new light on timeless question: "Why was I here?"

The five life lessons clarified for Eddy by angels are:

1- There are no random acts. Strangers are like family you have yet to know.

2- Sacrificing precious things, doesn't mean you lose them. You pass them on to someone else.

3- When we're angry, we hurt ourselves more than other people. Learn to forgive.

4- Life has to end, but love doesn't.

5- Your good deeds can help make up for what has been done before you.

How do you feel about these lessons? What kinds of life experiences have influenced your views? Explain how you understand connections among people you meet and your life experiences.

Almost, but not quite

How do we know guardian angels exist? Are they messengers of Higher Forces? Something beyond us seems to guide us to good thoughts and words, and to help preserve us from danger or suffering. 

A divorced mom I know now shared how she had struggled to raise her young son and wondered more than once how she would survive.   Try as she did to take on on odd jobs to support them both, the bills kept piling up.   When her ex-husband refused to pay support, and she had no friends or relatives to help, she ran into greater difficulties.  She spent all her money to feed her son and drank only milk herself.  As the result, she lost a lot of weight and became very weak. The time came when she hadn't paid rent in three months.  She feared she and her son would be evicted.  Her health became precarious and she finally arrived at her wits end. She made every sacrifice she could, though she says that her now adult son doesn't realize her sacrifices. 

Without apparent rhyme or reason, she asked for help aloud and thought nobody heard.  Soon afterwards, her landlord and people around her did a complete change of heart.  The landlord told her she didn't deserve the way she had been treated, and he'd erase her debt and start her bill from that moment. After everyone seemed to have turned their backs to her, she felt this landlord was a saviour. Then, she met a stranger who oriented her to a more stable job opportunity. The divorced mom became as an adminstrative assistant and filer in a radiology department. From that period in her life, things looked up.  She was offered other jobs that enabled her to make ends meat, pay her son's private school, and manage to keep her head above water. Looking back , she admits that she almost lost her bearings, but not quite. 

No matter how great your distress, how prolonged your solitude, how you almost lose faith, you'll always have access to Forces beyond you that are able to help you, as if from nowhere.  Take responsibility for your actions and realize your intentions, reasons and drive, all help you to progress in unexpected ways.

Deja-vu on a bicycle

A friend shared a miraculous story with me that involves her family twice spared from tragedies with children over a period of months.  She believes that a guardian angel twice saved the day.

In the first case, when she was an infant, her mother strapped her into her carseat and placed her brother beside her with a bag of lollies. The mother got into her car, started it and headed off down the road.  Much to the woman's surprise, the back door of her car flew open on the side where her son sat.  As he hadn't been wearing his seatbelt, he fell out onto the road and screamed on impact. The mother screached the car to a halt, jumped out, and ran to her son.  All he could scream was, "I want my lollies!" He didn't notice the bloody cuts.  At that moment, a kind woman arrived on her bicycle. She turned out to be a nurse and knew exactly what to do.  Then, the nurse rode way as quickly as she had appeared.  After that incident, the mother didn't try to find this nurse. She felt the nurse had been in the right place and was silently grateful.

Months later, the same woman and the same car had another close call. This time, her infant  niece locked herself into the car and struck a match. The chold lit herself on fire which led to third degree burns.  The aunt (owner of the car) smashed the back window and reached in to save the girl, and at the same time, got third degree burns herself.  Just then, the same nurse rode over the hill on that familiar bicycle the woman river remembered from the incident with her son.  Again, the nurse conveniently offered very specific health advice about how to deal with the burns.  Then, the nurse rode off again.  This time, the child's aunt tried to find the nurse to thank her, but never found her. To this day, the family believes in guardian angels.

Gotta have impatience

Patience, like time, is a commodity in great demand.  Impatience is experiencing an epidemic.   Many people make much ado about 'little things,' about where they're not, and don't take advantage of what's right in front of them. If this sounds familiar, you'd benefit from reviewing why you're impatient. Why not rethink how you could make more effective use of your time? 

If you drive a car, you've heard a horn blowing behind you when you're in no position to go anywhere. How does this help the honker? What about the person who accelerates past you only to stop at the red light just ahead? And, then, the driver does the same thing to be stopped at the next intersection.  These drivers don't necessarily feel better when they vent steam. They only annoy you if you let them, but they still get nowhere fast. Which driver sounds like you?

If you go into a shop, and nobody serves you, and you wish to get going somewhere else, how does that make you feel to be ignored? Perhaps you feel the world should revolve around you when it doesn't. People aren't often mind-readers. Is that fair? Could you invite this treatment?  Wherever you work, are you more attentive to the clock and the prospect of leaving than dealing with taks at hand? Consider the kinds of pleasures and useful learning you're missing.

If your boss tells you to stop what you're doing and to perform another task when it doesn't really need to be done right away, this may stress you out. Your boss may be impatient and may also wish to take advantage of the authority he or she has over you.  Or, you may exaggerate how difficult the situation really is. Why might you be impatient to do what you think is a priority?

What is about wishing that certain experiences were already over so we can get on with something else? Yet, we don't take the time to enjoy what happens as it does.  Kids often dress as grown ups and wish they had the privileges that adults have, like staying up late.  Then as adults, we wish to go to be earlier or relive parts of our childhood, but we are taught to be too serious.

What about traits of your partner or close friends who drive you bonkers? They may be impatient for you to get yourself together so they can get on with things. Or, you may be impatient for someone to get ready when that person often makes you late. How could you react differently?

Impatience is a quality that creeps up when we least expect it. Why sputter explatives? Does this make us feel better or have we been conditioned to think we have to react in a particular way?  Consider what life would be like if you learned to enjoy being stuck in traffic, if you saw being forced to postpone some of your own plans as a blessing, if you could see impatience as a teacher meant to temper your passions, if you could see advantages you didn't initially recognize. As you decide you wish to better understand and improve yourself, you love whatever happens.