The title above came to me in deep meditation, and for the last few days I’ve been trying to make sense of it, and trying to see if it was in tune with the purpose of this blog, which is to present the wonderful and simple things in life. I finally think I’ve got it. But let me tell you how all this came about. My wife and companion has been away for 2 weeks in a powerful workshop of energy healing, empowerment, and all-around wellness. And even being a good husband-helper, I have had to pick up most of her duties and responsibilities besides the ones that are my own. I have cleaned, kept the home tidy, done laundry a couple of times, even cooked twice (I confirmed the boys eat anything, whether you cooked it with love or it came frozen in a bag). I have tended to my daughter: made her special breakfast which has to be given by way of a feeding tube, prepared her lunch, checked for homework, gotten her in the tub with enough time to put her in bed so she could get a good night’s sleep. I have worked in my regular job, with an eye on my cellphone to see if my 15 and 16 years-old need me while they baby sit for me, sneaking a call or a text occasionally: “Is everything Okay?”
I have also done things for myself. Taking my wife’s lead, I dared go and have breakfast outside the house twice; it felt great, after I fought a sense of guilt. I also worked on the Spanish translation of my book, Drought, Rain. The Young Heroes Series, which I want to put out next month. And I meditated.
I felt deeply the absence of my wife, a woman that is everything to me. Yet, at the same time, I had a sense of emotional liberation, a sense of freedom that has been hard to deal with. Here is the realization I have had. For almost 30 years, this wonderful woman and I have been trying to SAVE THE WORLD, and have done very little for ourselves. I have taken this realization beyond our family and thought: Aren’t a lot of people doing this, on a different scale, concerned with war, disease, politics, conflicts, natural disasters, food collection, water depletion, global warming, but are doing very little for their personal selves?
My personal opinion is that if we begin to show more love to ourselves, and lead lives of more self-care, self-appreciation, and self-improvement, the world at large will be a much better place. I think I am not the only one with this message. I have experienced it seeing my wife grow in her workshop, in me seeing that 30 years of effort saving my world (health and education for the kids, keeping my finances afloat, doing as best as I can for my jobs, keeping the household going, etc.), may amount to nothing, in a flash, if I did not take care of ME! There is a saying in Spanish: “Salvese quien pueda!” Save yourself, if you can! Which is used in dire situations of great danger. Well, the great danger is that you may end this life and never find out what the heck was this all about (that is the “saving yourself” part).
I don’t know about you, but I have started looking inward, finding peace, enjoyment, pleasure, safety, and satisfaction for myself and with what I can do, right here and right now. And looking inward allows me to stand back and take a good look at the stage I am moving in. Yes, it may involve doing those dishes, or feeding that special child, or typing that blog; but I know I am doing it for me, in a journey of discovery and of growth. I will save myself, and maybe, just maybe, that will save the world.
Do I make any sense?
Copyright 2017, J. G. Herrera
See more of me at:
http://www.reikirebirth.webstarts.com
http://www.amazon.com/author/jgherrera
WONDERFUL SIMPLICITIES By Author J. G. Herrera 