An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire.
They could get by, he thought. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "my gift to you." What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built, none too well.
And so it is with us. We build health into our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put in less than the best. Are we striving to prevent illness or do we react after the fact? At important points we do not give the job our best effort, whether it be via a misguided medical concept, conceived to line the pockets of the established medical cartel, or through a genuine ignorance. Now, with a shock we look at the situation we have created over time and find that we are, after all, living in the house we have built. How sad - if we had only realized, we would have done it so differently!
Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house (your body). Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. It is the only life you will ever build. Build it wisely. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity.
Albert Einstein was right when he said that tomorrow's physician would study, more than anything, how to get the body to heal itself. We are already seeing proof of these changes through the current realm of alternative approaches.
The plaque on my wall says, "Health, as in life, is often a do-it-yourself project." How could one say it more clearly? "Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today".
F. J. Dickinson
