A favorite excerpt of mine written by Samuel Johnson reads as follows: ” Health is, indeed, so necessary to all the duties as well as pleasures of life, that the crime of squandering it is equal to the folly; and he that for a short gratification brings weakness and diseases upon himself, and for the pleasure of a few years passed in the tumults of diversion and clamors o merriment, condemns the maturer and more experienced part of his life to the chamber and the couch, may be justly reproached, not only as a spendthrift of his happiness, but as a robber of the public; as a wretch that has voluntarily disqualified himself for the business of his station, and refused that part which Providence assigns him in the general task of human nature.”
Dr. BJ Palmer talked about the little things that happen in a persons life that lead to BIG things. Someone slipping on ice may be a little thing to most. Lets call him Phil. That slip may lead to pain for Phil. That pain may keep Phil from attending work which may be a little thing to most. But now, Phil’s job didn’t get done. That may not mean much at first. But now things don’t get done and chaos among co-workers at the business begins to affect customers. You can see how this affects many as things evolve. Now, if John the janitor would have stepped over and sprinkled some salt on the sidewalk, would things have changed? Some might see that as a little thing. But that action stopped the transition of a line of occurrences that affected many. That’s kind of a BIG thing. But he didn’t because he took the flu shot because eating healthy, exercising and a healthy lifestyle are just too difficult. As a result John got sick and missed work himself.
The authors statements really hit me. This is just as current as when it was penned many years ago. When we knowingly or un-knowingly introduce our body to a life that ignores the basic needs and requirements of health, we not only affect ourselves individually, but also the people around us. We often live our lives as if we will have plenty of time to correct the faults leading to illness. We perceive that we will have time to correct it, when we see it coming. This saddly is not the case for most. You see, we usually don’t see the effects of deteriorating health until it is right on top of us. And there you will be, fighting to regain. Heatlh is not simply present or absent. It is a “spectrum” of graduating movement from one end being great to the other of disease and yes even death. Health is in a constant fluctuation while we are alive. Some are merely living. Some are truly thriving. Most are shifting in between.
We can’t account for everthing that goes wrong. But what would the world be like if we were all truly living responsibly for our health as if the community depended on it? Have you ever thought about it that way? What really rings true for me in this thought process is how it affects those around us. Not just family, but society in general is affected. No matter how menial or perhaps unimportant that you think your life and work are, you affect hundreds to thousands of those around us. Those people then affect even more. So when you fall sick or ill, people do suffer. If we all began to focus on creating health instead of trying to regain it, we would see communities change. I am sure of it. Yes, I understand that you would never have full compliance or probably even close to it. Still, we would see a change. Let’s get started today to commit to taking strategic, calculated, purposeful steps toward creating health. I have a Five step plan that many have followed and they have experienced the difference. Let’s be more of an Affect than an Effect. More to follow…
