Three years ago today my mother was admitted into the hospital, never to return to sleep at our house ever again. I remember this though I wasn't in Canada with her to experience them. A couple of days earlier she had gone to Port Hope with my father and sat enjoying Chinese food.
Health is wealth.
My mother struggled most of her life with her weight issue but she never felt sorry for herself, never threw herself pity parties and instead seemed as proactive about losing weight as she was wearing the extra weight. She had learnt to love her body but to continually work on trying to improve it. She was the kind of mother who I clearly remember her so confidently walking around the third floor of our house in just a white bra and panties, making phone calls, updating her money records and checking in on us in our individual bedrooms. She had her pennies lined up on the kitchen counter -- one penny representing each cup of water she wanted to drink that day, and she had her little affirmations and Biblical scriptures of encouragement on her bathroom mirror. She'd wake up early to walk the neighbours dog because she wanted to lose weight but more importantly because she wanted to stay active. Do you know, my mother walked me to school every day until I was reached grade 7 and decided one day it "wasn't cool" to have her walking me with a wagon full of babysitting kids. I think I broke her heart the day I told her to stop walking me and I've never really forgotten that. But that was my mom, she was a larger woman but she always did big and little things to stay active.
Health is wealth and having seen my mother lose hers to something really beyond her control, pancreatic cancer, health has become my number one valued thing in my life, more so than family, work and money. You can have the biggest and tightest family in the world, the best job and all the money your bank account could possibly have in it but if you don't have health than what good are you to those you love. All else loses meaning. I came to Korea with two suitcases, a lump sum of money in my pocket, an apartment arranged for that I hadn't yet seen, and a job I didn't know if I'd even like. I had nothing but everything, depending on which prospective you look at it from. At the time, I thought I had everything but looking back I feel as if I had nothing.
I spent my mother's last month with her, by her side at the hospital in Canada, and consequently I saw and met a lot of other people fighting for their health and unfortunately losing their fight. I don't want my health to stop me from not doing something I want to do, from living life. If I want to climb a mountain, hell I'm going to do it because I can.
These days my pet peeve has become those who randomly feel obligated to tell me why they don't work out, why they eat this or eat that -- why they've put their health on the backburner -- to which I would love to snap back with a sarcastic comment but don't. They have no reason to explain themselves to me, it's not my health they're jeopardising that is unless you consider their excuses somewhat stressful for me to digest. Everyone has their own priorities and, like everything, if it's important to you then you'll get it done but if it's not, well, that's when the excuses start. I just wish more people paid attention to their health, it really is a mind, body and soul kind of thing and what's good for the body is good for the mind as is what's good for the soul is good for the body. It's all interconnected. Unfortunately for many, it's not until they lose their health that they start to care for it. Medicine is NOT health care. Food and exercise is health care. Medicine is sick care. People need to understand the connection.
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