Being in the here and Now

Be careful what you wish for! I talked of becoming a healer, a Bodhisatva , of helping out those in pain and suffering and the Lord thought I should have a taste of what it would like to be right in the middle of it all. I cannot remember when i was last hospitalized but this time I turned myself in in the nick of time and was diagnosed have a mild stroke. For the past three days i found myself laying in bed among the invalids and vegetating men. 

 Almost all night long i stayed up not able to sleep from having to listen to loud screams and moans and groans from men in one kind of pain or another. I was about the healthiest guy in the ward and i felt like a prisoner kept to become a witness to what is really human anguish and suffering.

This young man of 28 is suffering from cancer and he was my next bed neighbor. As it turned out I knew his father who was from the same village where i grew up. His father was two years old or so and the older brother to his father was my closest childhood friend.  With the permission from his mother I massaged his legs and woke him up from his coma like sleep and it brought tears to her eyes on seeing this. A night later i massaged his whole body and I thought I saw a smile but kept quiet until his mother bursted out in tears and i felt tears n my eyes when she turned to me and said, I have not seen him smile for so long. She grabbed my hand and kissed, thank you she said.   

 This gentleman in the next bed was paralyzed after being stung by a jelly fish; he was a fisherman. He is being looked after by his brother who was very committed to his task that he too gave up his job to care for his brother. Upon being discharges as I was leaving with my daughter he asked for ten ringgit and i cold see the pain of humiliation in his eyes in having to do this.

For threes days and nights I witnessed two young adults wheeled in with paralyzing strokes and a convict escorted by policemen as he wa suffering from some kind of seizures. I asked the of the Chines patient to touch their father and grand father instead of standing around looking down at him. On my bed i sat in meditation and performed my Yoga stretching disregarding all those around me, the nurses, the doctors, the visitors, I put on a show for everyone in an effort to turn their attention from all the suffering around them Yes, I felt like a Bodhisattva! And i enjoyed my stay after making so many new friends and getting to know myself better.