A Nuttycellist's Monologue
A semiretired pediatrician living in a countryside in Japan will describe what he thinks of his hobbies, life and the events around himself.
10/02/2024
Excessive vine growth of sweet potato and a dish of the hypertrophied vine
10/01/2024
Failure of sweet potato growth
A T shirt and hectic days
9/15/2024
Life's most important task
This is a poem a german missionary of Catholic, Hermann Heuvers, has introduced in his autobio. Heuvers has stayed in our country as a teacher at a university pastoring a church from 1920s through 1960s. When he once returned to homeland, a friend of his gave this impressive poem to him. In 1977, while he served Mass on wheel chair, he developed acute heart attack which lead to death.
It sure leaves a lasting impression on me. I was going to put this into the previous post titled "The beginning of real retirement". I was too shy or even scared to compare our lives to this way of in devout belief.
It is still an excellent wisdom of life in old age. I would share it to you here, not in relation to the previous post. I still would spend or try to live the retirement ahead with the motto this poem depicts. This translation comes from a site by Nobuko Muth.
Quote~~~
What is this life's most important task?
To grow old with a cheerful heart,
To be still even when I would like to be active,
To be silent when I would like to talk,
To have hope in times of frustration,
To carry my cross in humility and serenity of heart,
To put aside envy even when I see younger people walking God's path full of health and energy,
To humbly accept help from others when I would rather work for the sake of others,
So when I can no longer be useful for others because of frailty I need to gently and humbly accept the heavy burden of old age as a gift from God.
I have an aged heart that has been in use a long time and now God is giving it a final polishing so that I can return to my true home all shining.
To gradually release myself from the chains that bind me to this world is indeed a wonderful work.
When I cannot do things let me humbly accept these circumstances in humility.
However for my closing years God has kept for me the most important work of all, and that is:
~~~End of quote
This translation is ended abruptly leaving a few more sentences untranslated. I dare finish it in my way as follows;
My hands could do little to the others
Only I could do until the end of my life is to join my hands in prayer
Praying for God's mercy over to all the people I love
When I have done all I could do, I may hear God telling me in dying bed,
"Come here, thou, you will never be abandoned."
~~~
I have learned about this poem from my sister 4 years elder than me several years ago. As I and the folks are getting older, this beautiful verse hauntingly comes up in my mind. My sister and borther in addition to my wife and myself are stepping into the elderhood. May all of us spend the last chapter of our lives as this poem indicates.
The beginning of real retirement
It is the 72nd birthday for my wife today. It's been a year since she closed her business. Things are settled down and regular routine is formed for her as well as for me now.
Signs of senility are looming to each of us whether we are aware of that or not. It is a reality. She has worked hard as a wife, a mother and a doctor for decades. I owe much to her. I would support her from now on, even though it might be me who should ask for her care. Who knows?
Wishing her peaceful and healthy retirement days even if it is only a brief period of serenity.
We have celebrated this day with a piece of cake last night.
Always the same photo. In the honey moon in 1979.
9/06/2024
Mahler 9th Symphony and Claudio Abbado
Before going to sleep, I have listened to this symphony for a few days.
I have posted about this music 8 years ago; here.
Getting older, I feel the theme of this music is getting more familiar or pressing to me.
This is the performance I listen to; Lucern Festival Orchestra conducted by Clauddio Abbado. It was 2010.
8/25/2024
Obon
As I repeatedly mentioned, it was the season named Obon in the mid August. A lot of people have returned to their hometown from big cities and have gathered with their folks. In a tradition of Bhuddism, they were accepting their ancestors at home. Bon odori, that is, traditional dance in Obon, was performed to welcome their ancestors. A lot of festivals were held for the same purpose. I believe only few people were commemorating Obon in this sense. Getting together with family members or old friends is itself a precious event in our life.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2286.html
Our family is not concerned about this event. I have been pulling the weeds in the farm and garden. Doing that, I was recollecting my parents, an aunt who has started a tuberculosis sanatorium at this place and the other people who have passed. There used to be a lot of pine trees in the sanatorium. Breeze has gone through those trees. As already wrote somewhere, such breeze coming through pine trees is my oldest memory in life. Now, as a typhoon has passed by, it is getting cooler at least at night. I was surprised to have cool breeze touching my face while working in the garden this morning. Fall is not far from here now. This is the way I am spending this Obon.