2019-06-10

CLOSE CALLS

                                       "Close Call" is an idiom used to indicate a narrow escape, also a warning.  When a person comes out of a difficult experience, like an accident, a burning home, or a medical surgery a doctor may say: "the person received a wake-up call"—a warning sign. An announcement that life is not eternal in material conditions. Life is subject to change, and sometimes drastic ones. Close calls are specific tips telling us we need to make changes. 




A dearest person was in holidays with her husband. One day she received a call from a relative telling her that her last living sister had died. She asked her husband to go back home. He asked her why? She answered him back in a very convincing way: “I know that now it is my turn.” I need to prepare myself, this is the sign that I was waiting for. She had been in the hospital, but the doctors did not find anything serious. A few months later she died in prayer. A medical doctor who was a friend at the moment, told him that people at a certain age feel that death is close and they need to be prepared for it. 

Close calls are important reminders that human Life is not eternal, that we are fragile and that we will leave this state at some point.



Then it is better not to repeat the same bad experiences, and to let go of behaviors and burdens that drive us to these narrow escapes of suffering. 



One day an old-time friend sent me a message: “If you come to see me, I will wait for you.” She was 104 years old. She read my articles and writings, and when she could not read because her sight was weak, she asked one of her friends to do so. I went to see her a year after, because she lived a long distance from my home. We were 14000 km away. We talked for a while. It was delightful. Then she looked at me and asked me to pray for her to have a smooth and harmonious passing. After that, she said to me: “Ciao” I left her hand and said back to her, “Ciao”. We knew that it would be the last time. A year after, at 106 years old, she passed away peacefully. 

                                                                                                                      
A doctor and dedicated student of spirituality who had attended several of my seminars, decided with his wife to move to a hotel-residence for seniors. That decision meant they had to sell their house and leave many of their precious goods because the new home was a smaller one. 

One day, after they had settled down in the new location, he told his wife that he was going to take a nap… an hour later, she found him dead. I have the firm conviction that he had a notice, an inner conviction to do the change. He left his dear wife in a safe and beautiful environment. Doing so, he could pass on in peace

If the acting and thinking drove us to the hard experience from which we left unharmed or suffering, we should pay attention to what life is telling us to avoid severe consequences again. 


J. Krishnamurti in his video “What is death?  He says: “Everything is cause and effect, and as a result “what you sow, you will reap”, in this life span or in future ones". He sustains that many of our human problems are due because of our attachments to people or to conflicts. The main aspect is that detachment is difficult for us, and in consequence we suffer from it. 

According to Dalai Lama attachments produce angers, and they destroy the physical and spiritual harmony, to dissolve them we can use meditations, prayers, contemplation.



Spirituality is not a pill to calm down our nervous system, and it is not a cosmetic treatment for our personality either. Instead to search for external solutions, spirituality encourages us to look into our inner self. It develops our own strength through the energy of the Spirit. Spirituality is a way of life that we walk taking on the problems and facing them. It does not evade the challenges but it uses them for awaking, elevating and purifying ourselves. We know that we have to be prepared, not to escape from death, but to go through it with integrity, being conscious of reaching out to another dimension of Being. 


The close calls can be a benediction when they wake us up to change our direction in life, to go forward in peace and harmony to the perfection of Being.
©Pietro Grieco 


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