Life Musings  − 12 March, 2008

Working for FuneralHomes.com there are some interesting stories that come across my desk. Stories that seem so unfair. I know, I know, life isn’t fair. I learned that a long time ago in the children’s ward of the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, where I spent a good deal of time as a child.
I roomed with kids that were born without a pelvic girdle. With Osteogenesis Imperfecta (“brittle bone” disease). Believe me, I know I am one of the lucky ones. But it still hurts me to see the “good ones” become victims of things like an arbitrary disease or violent crime.
In Crawfordville, FL, nurse Cheryl Dunlap was murdered, her body dumped in Apilachicola National Forest. This woman, by all accounts, was amazing. She has donated her time to medical missions. On a vacation in Mexico she actually brought equipment to take blood pressure readings for local villagers. Even with her death, she urged mourners to fight evil with good deeds. We need more people of light in this world. It is unfair, and a great loss to the world, that she was taken from us.
Religious friends of mine explain it away as God taking back his angels. Others say her work here was done. Perhaps in her last moments she trusted or tried to help the wrong person and in the end he killed her anyway. Doesn’t sound like the work of God to me. They say that God works in mysterious ways, but I don’t like blaming murder on the Big Guy. A person killed her – and not inspired by God, I don’t think.
I look at my friend Linda – still in a coma. Or my girlfriends – three of them with Multiple Sclerosis. And 1 in 150 kids diagnosed with Autism. Or even me. Why?
I like to think I chose this challenge for this lifetime as a learning experience. I am a fan of Sylvia Browne’s Novus Spiritus, and I am certain that I chose to learn “patience” in this incarnation. Admittedly, I am not doing a very good job of it. I guess I could argue that the afore-mentioned people also chose their challenges. Perhaps Cheryl chose her death as a lesson for others. We all touch other people’s lives to a greater or lesser extent, and we all learn from one another as well.
I don’t know how many people try to “pay it forward” on a daily basis. I know I have to remind myself to. Would it really make a difference in overcoming all the negativity in the world, though? In my beliefs, I incarnated to test my mettle against all this negativity to perfect my soul. Would it be such a challenge if life were easier? And those I look at who have it “easy” – they have challenges I am unaware of, too – does anyone escape life unscathed? I think not.
I try to make my life easier – that’s the point of all the modern conveniences, isn’t it? So that we can have more leisure time to enjoy. Makes life more enjoyable, if not actually easier. It seems we fill all that “extra” time with things that perhaps take our focus away from the more important things in life, like loved ones…
Anyway, those are my musings today… some things to ponder.