OUR DAILY MEDICINE:
A 28-DAY REFLECTION ON LIVING AND DYING
We cannot be fully alive until we come to terms with our humanity and our mortality.
I spent 28 days considering the words and thoughts
of philosophers and writers and poets and gurus and artists ...
pondering life and death ...
my daily medicine.
I made a small wrapped bead (1cm long) from a plastic straw.
This I wrapped with text,
and then with a selection of embellishments,
including yarn, wire, beads, fabric, ribbons and sequins.
I wrote the words I had chosen for that day on a slip of paper.
This I rolled tightly and slipped into the wrapped bead.
For that day, I carried the bead in my pocket ...
a tangible reminder of my humanity.
At day's end,
I inserted the bead into a medicine box.
I spent 28 days considering the words and thoughts
of philosophers and writers and poets and gurus and artists ...
pondering life and death ...
my daily medicine.
I made a small wrapped bead (1cm long) from a plastic straw.
This I wrapped with text,
and then with a selection of embellishments,
including yarn, wire, beads, fabric, ribbons and sequins.
I wrote the words I had chosen for that day on a slip of paper.
This I rolled tightly and slipped into the wrapped bead.
For that day, I carried the bead in my pocket ...
a tangible reminder of my humanity.
At day's end,
I inserted the bead into a medicine box.
Day One
"A sad soul can kill you quicker
than a germ."
John Steinbeck
Day Two
"Love cures people -
both the ones who give it
and the ones who receive it."
Dr. Karl Menninger
Day Three
"Mens sana in corpore sano.
Your prayer must be for a sound mind
in a sound body."
Juvenal
Your prayer must be for a sound mind
in a sound body."
Juvenal
Day Four
"A bodily disease,
which we look upon as whole and entire in itself,
may,
after all,
be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual past."
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Day Five
"Health is a large word.
It embraces not the body only,
but the mind and the spirit as well;
... and not today's pain and pleasure alone,
but the whole being and outlook of a man."
James H. West
It embraces not the body only,
but the mind and the spirit as well;
... and not today's pain and pleasure alone,
but the whole being and outlook of a man."
James H. West
Day Six
"Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life,
which fade and are tasteless without it."
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Day Seven
"Happiness is no more than
good health
and a bad memory."
Albert Schweitzer
Day Eight
"It is health
that is real wealth
and not pieces of gold."
Day Nine
"Never hurry.
Take plenty of exercise.
Always be cheerful.
Take all the sleep you need.
You may expect to be well."
James Freeman Clark
Take plenty of exercise.
Always be cheerful.
Take all the sleep you need.
You may expect to be well."
James Freeman Clark
Day Ten
"If you do not make use
of this free and precious life,
what good does it do
to possess a human body?"
Shabkar
Day Eleven
"Death is neither depressing nor exciting:
it is simply a fact of life."
Soygal Rinpoche
Day Twelve
"The trouble with always trying to preserve
the health of the body
is that it is so difficult to do
without destroying
the health of the mind."
GK Chesterton
the health of the body
is that it is so difficult to do
without destroying
the health of the mind."
GK Chesterton
Day Thirteen
"Diseases of the soul
are more dangerous and more numerous
than those of the body."
Cicero
Day Fourteen
"To take for permanent
that which is only transitory,
is like the delusion of a madman."
Kalu Rinpoche
that which is only transitory,
is like the delusion of a madman."
Kalu Rinpoche
Day Fifteen
"When health is absent,
wisdom cannot reveal itself,
art cannot manifest,
strength cannot fight,
wealth becomes useless,
and intelligence cannot be applied."
Herophilus
wisdom cannot reveal itself,
art cannot manifest,
strength cannot fight,
wealth becomes useless,
and intelligence cannot be applied."
Herophilus
Day Sixteen
"Body and soul
cannot be separated for purposes of treatment,
for they are one and indivisible.
Sick minds must be healed
as well as sick bodies."
C. Jeff Miller
Day Seventeen
"Health is not valued until sickness comes."
Thomas Fuller
Day Eighteen
"Health is the greatest possession.
Contentment is the greatest treasure.
Confidence is the greatest friend.
Non-being is the greatest joy."
Lao Tzu
Day Nineteen
"My inner advisor is dying to heal me."
Astrid Alauda
Day Twenty
Cheerfulness is the very flower of health.
Day Twenty-one
"The secret of health
for both mind and body
is not to mourn for the past,
nor to worry about the future,
but to live the present moment wisely."
Buddha
for both mind and body
is not to mourn for the past,
nor to worry about the future,
but to live the present moment wisely."
Buddha
Day Twenty-two
"Health is the greatest gift,
contentment the greatest relationship,
faithfulness the best relationship."
Buddha
Day Twenty-three
"We will never again have the chance
to be born again
into a body like this one."
Kalu Rinpoche
Day Twenty-four
"On the day that you were born,
you began to die.
Do not waste a single moment more!"
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Day Twenty-five
"You see,
we are all dying.
It's only a matter of time.
Some of us just die sooner than others."
Dudjom Rinpoche
Day Twenty-six
"This tool,
our body,
is given to us for only a short time:
this life."
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Day Twenty-seven
"Like a robe wears out over time
and turns to rags,
life wears out from day to day,
from second to second."
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Day Twenty-eight
"Life is fragile,
like the dew hanging delicately on the grass,
crystal drops that will be carried away on the first morning breeze."
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
