Limbs

A woman lost three fingers in a freak accident yesterday. She is a fellow resident in my apartment block. Her fingers had rested on a door frame when a sudden gust of strong wind blew the door shut. It slammed right onto her fingers, crushing all three at once. She was sent to the hospital, and the fingers were amputated. In just a few minutes, she lost part of herself.

Through life, we have contributed our fair share of grumblings about backaches, sore shoulders, arthritis, and even gout. True, it's hard to be optimistic and laugh the pains and aches away when the affected part inflicts misery on us. But in our sufferings, we seldom stop to think that........at least we still have the fingers for arthritis to attack, or that we still have a foot for us to sprain!

Perhaps now is a good time to start appreciating the various parts of our bodies that we've long taken for granted. We are lucky that the danger of stepping onto landmines and losing our legs in a blink of an eye is minimal. We could start by being more self-reliant, put our limbs to good use, and in the process, get some exercise as well. Walk the short distance to the kitchen for a glass of water instead of hollering for the hired help.

And every night, if we climb into our warm beds as whole as we have been in the morning, we should be thankful that we've made it safely through another day.