motivational mondays

Photo credit: http://somdthisisliving.somd.com

With more than half the family gone and the mad rush of project major springclean, it doesn't quite make sense for me to post up articles on the door this week.


As I look around and see how the house seems to be completely messed up with piles of stuff (which is the normal temporal state of chaos as we try to get things in order), I been thinking through interesting thoughts of how the situation is a pretty good analogy of a facet of life - of how much more important things on the inside are when it comes to health or well-being. Sure, appearance can be a telling sign of what's going on on the inside, but the real danger comes when the appearance is deceiving.


I once had a cactus that I really appreciated. It wasn't the typical, normal, all-green types. It was one of those that had a colourful head. and it was beautiful. I remember how happy and healthy it looked, and as I waited in anticipation to see it flower, I remember how proud I was of myself of how well it was doing in my care. But all of a sudden, one day, it just seemed to start dying. I still remember the shock I felt, especially considering that I thought it was thriving. But reaching out to touch it, I realized that its whole stem which looked sturdy was actually soft, and after some research, I found that my cactus, that looked like it was doing so well, had actually been sick for a long time with a disease called stem rot. It had been dying from the inside and I couldn't even tell. And worse, by the time I found out, it was too late. :( The appearance of it didn't count for much. It completely had me fooled - deceiving me to ever reconsider its inner state of health.


Even when it comes to physical health, the same rule generally applies. People die from "sudden" deaths like heart attacks or cancer everyday. In truth, however, the body has been suffering for a while without you noticing at all. It's what's happening on the inside that really matters. 


The twist is that if you recognize the disease in time, and choose to deal with it, although your appearance might be affected for a short while, the results at the end of the temporal period of chaos/suffering is worth the battle. What matters isn't really the disease, but rather that of whether you're fighting to overcome it. 


Our lives are just like our houses. If you don't clear up, clutter builds, tensions rise, insects come...and if you don't deal with it quickly, they multiply. And insects not only destroy a lot of things, but when they start nesting they smell bad and are simply really disgusting (trust me, I speak by first-hand experience...several times over now). 


So perhaps this shall be this week's "motivational monday" topic... although it's really more reflective. Today I wonder how I'm doing on the inside - in regards to my emotional and spiritual well-being, and whether I've been hiding away life-clutter...such as unresolved issues from the past. Perhaps it's time to deal with them now  and battle them early - before they might unknowingly overwhelm me.