Day 13 Health Awareness Blog: 10 Things I Couldn't Live Without

Today's writing prompt is  asking me to write about the ten things I couldn't live without. Things. People are not things, so I'll start this list by saying that the people in my life are much more important than the things. I could do without everything as long as I could keep my husband, children and grandchildren in my life. There are many other people in my life who bring me pleasure - friends, colleagues, relatives and acquaintances, but they are not an essential life source for me as my family is. Love is a powerful resource, reciprocal at its best, and devastating if lost.

Love is not a thing ... it's an idea, an emotion, a state of being, a quest, and a gift. I could not live without the love of my family.

Health is not a thing: it is a state of being, but perceived differently by individuals. I have a strong label on my medical folders: multiple sclerosis. It carries with it a prognosis unknown, with the bleakest projections far away on the spectrum from the mildest, benign end. End, you say? There is no end to a spectrum. And if you believe that, then both ends are equally infinite, and the darkest belief is balanced by the brightest.

If this is to be a bucket list of sorts ... the ten things I could not live without ... I really have to play with the word things, because what I could not live without are intangible ideas or states of being. there is nothing tangible on my list:

1. love: to be loved, and to love in return,
2. self worth: a belief that I can love and be loved
3. competence: being able to provide what I can do to better the states of others
4. compassion: to receive compassion and to feel compassion for others
5. understanding: a set of knowledge and an awareness of what that knowledge might provide
6. appreciation: for those I love, for the world of nature in which we live, for air, food, water and shelter
7.  courage: to face whatever obstacles stand in the way of those I love
8. will: to overcome those obstacles despite whatever personal challenges I feel at the time
9. success: as defined for myself, and as recognized by those I love, and in those I love
10. self-confidence: to allow myself to speak up for those I love, and for myself.

Are these 'things' that I expect to be given? No. They are emotions, beliefs, values and goals that I have accepted and sought in my life. They are what I have lived, and have tried to model for those I love, that they, too, can live such a life ... where material things have less value, less importance, and are less essential than the way we can live, with whatever we have, wherever we are, and whoever we will be, with and for each other.

Does this list negate the existence or importance of a spiritual belief? Does it neglect homage to a superior being? Does it remove the obligation of duty to a religious belief? Does it place us above a God?

If in reading this list, one is discomforted by the absence of a deity in name, then one is missing all that lies between the lines. Hindus, Taoists and Buddhists recognize the existence of the greatest spirit within ourselves and each other. Their greeting, Namaste, expresses this belief, this recognition, and this humility. Isn't it hubris, you might ask, to assume that the greatest deity resides within us? Humble may be the word ... no one of us is any better, nor any less, than any other of us. "The divine within me recognizes and bows to the divine within you."  What a powerful message to share with everyone in your life ... those you love ... those you dislike ... those you fear ... those you feel responsible toward ...  Namaste is the great equalizer. It is a word that challenges each of us to be worthy, to be better, to be as loving and compassionate a provider as we may have been taught to believe that God is.

Namaste, my friend. I trust that you understand my writings. They are written from within, with love.

Day Three Prompt: If you had a superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?

Hmmm ... a superpower. What would it be? What would I most like to have as a superpower? And if I did use it, would it benefit some without causing harm to others?


For example, mind-reading ... if I could read others' minds, recognizing truth vs lies, courage vs bravado, honesty vs deception ... what would I do with that knowledge? Would I make my power known publicly, as Superman did? Or would I hide my power from others to protect myself from those seeking power over others? Would I be so distracted by others' thoughts that I would lose awareness of my own? Or would I use that knowledge to try to intercede in conflicts about to be, in the optimistic belief that I could make a difference if only I knew what motivated the disagreements ... or would that intervention serve only to make things worse?


Or would I want a superpower that was physically beneficial? If I suddenly became invincibly strong, able to lift great weights, or dive to great depths, or climb mountains tirelessly, or run endlessly at great speeds... perhaps that strength would have value a hundred years ago, but technology today can help people do all of that virtually, communally, through immediate technological communications, explorations, and demonstrations.


Could I have a superpower that would make a difference in the world's political arena? If I were able to implant positive, peaceful motivations in world leaders' minds leading to the recognition that, regardless of geographic location or economic situations we ought to act as one united human race, protecting our planet from further devastation, pollution, and consumption? Would my priorities, my beliefs, my values and my humility and altruistic desires serve to better the human race's situation? Could I make the best decisions?


If I had a superpower in my brain, a creative discovery of the best way to grow enough crops in even the worst climates and soils, to help every area on earth become self-sustaining and not dependent, would it allow various cultures to retain their identities without retaining their legacies of hardship, starvation and disease? Could such a brain recognize and share natural disease treatments? Would the population then increase exponentially across the globe? How many years would the natural resources last? Would a super-powered brain be able to plan for that?


I'm not a super-powered being. I'm a rational American, one who has followed the rules, set goals, and worked toward them, accomplishing much along the way and learning to accept the shortfalls that come with life. I think often of the word Namaste ... translated by Mother Teresa to "I see God in every human being" and by the people of Hindu belief as "I recognize and bow to the divine in you, as you do in me."  If we all could accept that premise of life, what a beautiful race we could be, with the superpower of respect.


Related articles

• The Complex Process of MS Diagnosis (everydayhealth.com)
• The future of humans (strawberryindigo.wordpress.com)
• The CIA's War On Human Consciousness (disquietreservations.blogspot.com)

For the month of April, I've renewed the discount at CreateSpace for Multiple Sclerosis an Enigma. To receive 35% off the regular price, go to this link:

https://www.createspace.com/3711313 

and enter this discount code at the checkout:VXXURQMH