Count Your Blessings!
Hello Everyone,
Kapil here from Mishmi Takin. How are you? How is your week going?
This month I wanted to write about a different topic but life has a way of intruding when least expected. So, this email is about more topical things happening around me, things which have a tendency of making us focus on what is truly important in life.
Earlier this month, my wife returned from a Europe tour complaining of an upset stomach. Couple of days later, this became pain in the abdominal area. We thought it would go away in a day or two but it didn't. We feared that it might be appendicitis and so we finally went to ER (emergency). The ER doctors ordered a CT scan and lo and behold, my wife had a tumor the size of a football growing out of her pelvic area and covering her entire abdomen. It obviously scared the daylights out of us. My wife was immediately transferred to a speciality hospital and operated upon a few days later. The cauliflower shaped tumor was taken out and a couple of her other organs also participated in the organ donation program. Eventually, it was found out that the tumor was mostly filled with mucous. It turned out to be benign and we collectively let out a sigh of relief. My wife is now on the road to recovery and all is well.
This wasn't the only event of note. My brother and sister-in-law got into a major car accident last month. Thankfully both of them escaped unhurt. Someone else was not so fortunate though. A classmate of a young friend of our's also got into a car accident and perished. She was an undergraduate student at MIT. She had just finished her spring semester and was at her home planning her classes for fall semester. She went out with her sister to get ice-cream when a drunk driver hit her car and she didn't make it. A promising young life was taken away. One minute she was planning classes and a few minutes later she was no more.
All this has been weighing on my mind. As I waited to find out the results of my wife's surgery, life seemed to be balanced on a knife's edge. It had never felt so binary. We survived but it was a very close shave. It made me realize how unpredictable life is and how we tend to think in a linear fashion. We think that someone is there, so they will always be there. Or, we think that something is going in a certain way and it will always be like that. However, life is not a continuous, linear function. It does not always go in a straight line. Discontinuous change does happen and when it happens, it catches us by surprise and ends up having a far bigger impact on our life than we expect.
With all this in mind, just wanted to say that in the daily hustle of life, let us take a minute to count our blessings. Let us take a moment to hug our loved ones and tell them how much we love them and how much they mean to us. Even if a loved one has hurt us somehow and is estranged for some reason, let us reach out to them, let bygones be bygones and tell them that they are still loved. Life is too short to hold grudges.
That's all for today. Have a great summer.
Peace,
Kapil
P:S - By the way, it is probably a good idea to get an annual checkup done. We take our cars for a checkup every 5000 miles or so. It is a good idea in my opinion to do the same for the most complex machine ever designed, our bodies. Good day.
3 Responses
Wade Merchant
All my love to all of you Kapil. I will certainly keep Manisha in prayer. I am currently in Liberia. Blessings…
Manish Kakkar
Hi Kapil, Hope Bhabhi is recuperating well. Life is really uncertain though we feel and behave that we are here for eternity and make life complicated around us with so many ‘wants’ which were never our needs. I had similar issue few years back with my wife. Being alone in a foreign land adds up to is having lesser emotional support system around us. We eventually got out of it. I have change my life philosophy since the. “Carpe Diem” , two words but have such a profound meaning. Live life for and with you family and friends and live it everyday.
Once again, hope that bhabhi gets well soon. Take Care.
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Bruce
January 04, 2020
As the saying goes, the most important things are not things. It’s always people and the ones we love. And who love us. Yesterday I learned a friend passed away in his apartment unexpectedly, found by one of our mutual friends. Last week we were joking around together. Today he is gone. Hugs and "I love you’ every day are the most important investments you can make. And yes to those checkups – especially all of us guys who never want to go to the doctor!