Life is about the spirit of life

If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit.
Oprah Winfrey

It was December 13, 2011 we arrived safely in Texas and I was so grateful for the opportunity to bring back my mom to visit United States. I wanted to share my belief about “Life is not about age, life is about the spirit of life itself”.

My mom’s last trip to United States was 22 years ago and she was 55 years old at that year. She didn’t want to visit USA again because it considered a long trip in the airplane, especially when she got older and older. She was worried about her health, her legs and there were many reasons not to go to America. I thought, maybe the biggest reason she didn’t want to be a burden for somebody during a long trip.

In July 2011, it was two days before her 76 years birthday at one o’clock in the morning, my daughter woke me up and said, “Mom … wake up… please wake up.. Something happened with grandma” My daughters always slept in my mom’s room. I jumped from my bed and rushed to my mom’s room. I tried to wake her up but there were no response from her. She was unconscious at that time. We were panic and started to call everybody to help us. I was shocked and I tried to hold my mom with my hand. I couldn’t move her at all. Finally someone helped us to carry my mom into the car and we brought her to the hospital. My daughters and I prayed and cried a long the way and I kept saying, “Mom please … wake up” She got first aid in emergency room; her sugar blood pressure was too low. The doctor said, “Thanks God, you are about on time to bring your mom here. If you are late, she would be in coma forever” The doctor’s statement tore my emotion. I prayed to God, “God, Please give her another chance… Please give me another chance to make her happy” I lost my energy… I cried and I saw my daughters and my family was in tears. My brothers came directly to the hospital. Time is a valuable thing in life and life is short. Sometimes I took time for granted so I didn’t realize I could always loose the opportunity in life. My mind went back at the moment when I lost my dad, he passed away during his trip and he came back in his coffin. The trauma was still in my mind. Now I had to see my mom was in crisis.

A couple minutes after the crisis, my mom awoke. We all were happy to see her and I promised in my heart. I would give my mom a motivation to bring her health to the maximum. I believed as Deepak Chopra said, “We are not victims of aging, sickness and death. These are part of scenery, not the seer, who is immune to any form of change. This seer is the spirit, the expression of eternal being.”

I witness many people with limited body abilities; they still can do a lot of thing in their life and most of the time because they have only a great spirit in their life. I started to set up my mom’s mind. We had a trip to Bali the next week to celebrate her birthday and I decided not to cancel the trip. I said, “Mom, you can do the trip. I will not cancel the trip”

A week after that, we went to Bali for five days and my mom could enjoy the trip. I gave her another motivation, “Mom, you can still travel to America. You can visit your grandchildren’s campus. We can go to Disney world… Let’s keep your health in the prime condition” I saw the motivation worked so well. The spirit of life took over my mom’s ages; her health was getting better and better.

I always believe in philosophy, life is about spirit not about the body. I had experiences in life when I was hospitalized and I faced surgery, I kept saying to myself, “It is okay if something happens with my body but the spirit of life should be there all the time”

I made my wish came true, I brought my mom back to visit America. I was so happy and she was happy to see her grandchildren in America. We were back to visit Disney World in Florida. She needed wheelchair to go around the Disney Park, but she made it. I was worried actually but there was always a whisper voice in my heart, “You can do it… You can do it”

The trip is a great lesson learns about the spirit of life and I agreed with James A. Garfield, “If wrinkles must be written on our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.”


**Lina Kartasasmita** Jakarta, January 22, 2012 at 10.46PM

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