MONDAY—REVERENCE FOR LIFE

“By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world. By practicing reverence for life, we become good, deep and alive.”

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

Life is a precious gift, which we largely ignore until it is about to be taken away or changed dramatically. A life-threatening illness or event usually transforms a person’s perspective. Have you met anyone who has survived cancer; fought off another terrible illness, or had a near-death experience? Almost everyone will tell you that they have a new-found reverence for life, and for everyone and everything in their world; they now enjoy every moment.

Why do most of us wait for a crisis to make us appreciate what we have? Because most of us are asleep and take our life forces for granted! We are unconscious of the beauty, joy and wonder of being alive. We are living life at half-mast.

Imagine you were told you had a month to live. That’s all. One month. How would you live in that last month—not what would you do, but HOW would you live? This may be the most important question in this whole book. It is at critical times like this that many people discover their true spiritual nature. Many people who have never prayed before or believed in prayer or a God or anything spiritual, start to pray with fervor at times of crisis. They develop faith, which Ghandi says, “is nothing but a living, wide-awake consciousness of God within.”

I hope you would suddenly start treating life with great reverence—and that you would recognize how precious it is. That you would see everything in your life as a gift—your family, your friends, your colleagues, difficulties, challenges, even your enemies would look pretty good at that time!

I hope you would look longingly at nature’s magnificence and the tiniest things would bring joy, wonder and awe. I hope that you would suddenly see the bigger picture and not be caught in petty squabbles. I hope that you would not waste time watching mindless television, instead of communicating with your family and friends. I hope that you would explore and share your feelings. I hope that you would be honest and truthful.

Art Buchwald, the famous American journalist, was told in 2006 that he was going to die. His kidneys had failed in June, and he was given three weeks to live and went into a hospice. He was cared for and nurtured, spent time with his family and friends, and relished every moment of life. As he told the story later, he was full of joy and had a great time, and developed a deep sense of reverence for life.

Five months later, he had to check out of the home because his kidneys were now functioning! Joy, reverence, gratitude and relishing every moment of his life, restored his life! He died in January 2007 after he had written another book called, “Too Soon to Say Goodbye!” (published by Random House).

Today is the day to look at how you respect and revere your life. Start being conscious of every wonderful moment you are given—whether it is disguised as a challenge, or is an obvious blessing. Become full of reverence for it and for everything that happens and for all those who are in your life. Be glad, joyful, grateful, kind, and relish every little thing that happens—all the pain, challenge, difficulty and the fun. Treat your life as the precious and wonderful gift it is.

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