Five months ago, I visited my housemate at the hospital a day after she delivered her second child, together with her 5-year old son. Wanting to hold the boy as his father had many things in his hands, I alighted at the wrong side of the road. But to my horror, I saw a car approaching so I immediately closed the car door without really being mindful of what I was doing. As I bang the car door because of sheer instinct, my thumb got caught.
So, as I welcomed a new person in our house, through the life of a baby girl, I was bidding farewell to my fingernail.
Two weeks ago, the baby girl was baptized, and as we welcomed her to the Catholic family, the last stroke of my dead nail had peeled – off. I have now a completely brand new right (thumb) nail.
Truth of the matter, I am not expecting for a new nail to grow. After I saw it turned purple to black after the accident, I thought I would forever have to hide it under the mask of a nail polish. But, lo and behold, I don’t have to, because my nail grows anew in the last five months.
I can’t help but also recall the time when I celebrated my birthday 30,000 above sea level. Few minutes after midnight, the actual birthday, I was reading the birthday card given by friends from the church community when a cabin crew announced that a passenger needed medical attention and was asking if there were doctors around. There, I saw from my seat two passengers provided CPR to the ill – passenger. When his body was brought down from the aircraft, I welcomed a new year to my life while another life just ended.
When my brother passed – on, it brought the entire family to pain, hatred, regret and indescribable silence. Seeing my mother silently growing her plants and tilling soil even during the evening and witnessing new wooden cabinets and chairs unendingly built by my father to the point of creating clutter in the house were sights I thought I would forever bear. Because, I guess, those were their ways to cope with their loss of a son in one violent night. But I was wrong. One day, a family member announced that he would be a father soon! The birth of the baby ignited joy to be revived in my family! We called him Isaiah Luke, for Luke is a doctor and he has healed our sadness.
A life has been taken away from us but we have been given anew life. A new life not to replace what has been lost but a new life because life goes – on.
For life to go -on, a chapter ends, but, a new one will unfold. For life to continue, a door closes, however, another door opens.
Somewhere, somehow, life will find its way to continue.
We just only need to give life a chance to continue.
—————————————————–
Thank you for reading.
Finding hope in this post?
Please hit the “like” and share buttons found at the bottom.
The Chronicles of Benia 