hear the cries of those in pain... Wednesday, May 21, 2008
it is inevitable to come across pain, misery and illness when you are in the hospital most of the time, but what strikes me most is the courage of those who are afflicted by these conditions, especially the chronic illnesses..
i see resilience in the mother who takes care of her little boy with leukemia.
i see her willingness to do anything for her little boy, as long as he gets better.
i can see the weariness in her eyes, i wonder if she questions 'why'..
i know she feels pain, but she chose to ignore it, just so she can be strong for her little boy..
and i know he feels pain too, pained because his family has to go through all these for him..
i see the nobleness of the mother who chose to give up everything else in her life, so that she can centre it around her little boy with down's..
all the extra effort she has to put in, just so that her boy can walk, can dress properly, can feed himself with a spoon.. training him repetitively for 3 years everyday just so that he can take a bus to school.. accompanying him tirelessly to rehabilitation so that she can hear him say'ma'.. all those things we take for granted..
i am deeply touched by all the sacrifices that the parents make just to take care of their children.
and i am only looking at the tip of the iceberg...
as i stood in the day therapy centre today, i wondered what i will do if such a thing happens to me.. will i have the courage to face up to it? will i be strong enough to take care of my child? will i be strong enough to accept all the changes in my life? will i become depressed and resentful? will i be bitter and keep questioning 'why'? ... and i just wanted to cry..
and i wonder how my life will be, if someone in my family was chronically ill.. will my dad still be the person he is right now? will he still be so caught up in his rat race? or will he realise that there is actually more to life than money? will he be more gentle and caring towards those around him? and will i be the same uncaring person i am still?
yan rong told me that we humans will never know the real pains of those around us, because all of us put on this false front of happiness, trying to be brave and strong.. only God hears their cries, and God shows that he cares, by putting people who really do care in the lives of those who are pained. i hope i will be able to bring comfort to someone someday. having lived your life knowing that u have made a difference to someone else's life, even if it is just one person, is already meaningful enough..
i feel deeply for those suffering in myanmar and china.. i hope they will feel God's presence and love with them admidst all the pain and suffering..
and i hope that we, the luckier ones, will learn to cherish and be contented with the things we already have.. because what we take for granted, many others have to fight very hard in order to have..
may God let us hear the cries of those in pain, so that they can lean on us for love and support.
