Vol. 12 – Number 45 – 2020
HUGO NAGEM COLUMN TIPS
Page 5
Today is your 100th birthday and how will you be?
Imagine that today is your 80th, 90th or maybe 100th birthday.
A possible thing to happen in front of the technology and medicine that we live today. The longevity is increasing, and yes, we can pass 100 years. But back to what I asked you to imagine, today is your birthday and you’re sitting on your bed, finishing putting on your shoes and a movie starts to pass in your head now. And tell me something, what would this movie look like? You would be sitting in your bed, finishing putting on your socks and shoes without any help from anyone, after taking your bath the way you like, alone; or you would be in a wheelchair, in a cold bed, with some caregiver helping you daily to do your basic needs for years. Let’s say you weren’t in a wheelchair or in bed, but how would your health be that day?
You’d be sitting in your bed, listening to various voices coming in through your bedroom window, and among all of them are those of your beloved wife your true love, your children that you fought so hard to give them all your foundation of how to be a real human being, and your grandchildren running all over the yard, screaming among them and playing in your home; or in a dark and cold hospital room, receiving visits from small groups that visit you out of pity and pity to see their sad end?
You would be sitting in your bed, in a beautiful suite of a beautiful and cozy house of your family’s dreams, where everyone waits for you in a large beautiful area, decorated and made especially to welcome everyone you love, with plenty of room to welcome many people on special occasions; or you would be in your little room of an asylum or care home for the elderly, even your little house that you struggled so hard to build and today you’re hanging on some kind of bank loan to be able to afford the costs of medicines and doctors to take care of your health completely shaken, while your wife, children (if you’ve built a family) continue to lead their lives, only and exclusively by the example that you gave to everyone when you led your life.
You would be sitting in your bed, rejoicing and proud of having fought a good fight, building a spiritually strong family, because that’s what you’ve cultivated your whole life – a strong and unbeatable Spirit, where you fought and won almost all the battles that life has reserved for you – and are leaving a legacy to your descendants. Happy to be surrounded by true friends and all those you led in your incessant battle to make a better world through your work, and with the certainty that if today is your last day, your family will be protected until your last days, because you lived a whole life for it; or you would be dying of fear of what your night will be like, because you lived a life of physical exaggerations, betrayals, unbridled consumptions and today you realize that you built nothing but a story of suffering and darkness of your own life.
I could write here pages and pages of all the variables of this day of his birthday, this milestone in his life. But what I want you to reflect is, what path are you building? How will your health be? How many family members, friends and people who worked with you will be at your party? How will you be financially and spiritually leaving a real legacy to your family?
Everything I reported above is practically under your control. You control what you eat, how well you treat people, how well you defend your family, how much you work and get rich, and what you don’t control, you can still control how you react to the challenge, sit and cry or get up and move on.
Your future is a meteor that we do not control. It arrives without asking permission, without mercy and without warning, but you can prepare yourself focusing on your now. Take your gift in your hands and be the pilot of this plane called “my life”, because we will never know when he will actually arrive.
Diminish the abstractions and distractions that lead you to nothing. Talk less about politics, soccer and religion and practice more servitude, sports, eat more salad and less sugar and white flour, save more than you earn, and work to get rich without thinking about money but the protection and comfort of your family and to help those most in need, and be gentle always with your neighbor, because we never know the inner battle he is going through.
A huge kiss in your heart, stay with God and #lifegoeson
Hugo Nagem
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