Health again

Health is a tricky subject to talk about. To state what it is, to define it, is to exclude folk who do not fit that particular definition. To not define it is to end up with a word which carries little meaning.

There is in a person's life a spring, a summer, an autumn and a winter. A person in the spring of life bursting with energy epitomises good health according to the media and our fantasies. But what about a person in the winter of their life. Their body may be failing them. They may have aches and pains. Yet they have a twinkle in their eye. They feel love and are loved. They are content. Their opinion is sort after. Can they not be healthy too?

What is good health differs depending on the stage of life a person is at. It also differs on a personal level.

Some of us are geniuses, some of us are handicapped, some of us are average and ordinary, some of us are talented and some of us are seriously afflicted. Luckily we are all different, unique even. Can not old and disabled people be healthy too?

Some of us think we know what is 'right for me'. All too often there is a rude awakening and we realise we didn't know - we were wrong - our whole attitude was unhealthy. With insight often comes a sense of release and well being - of openness to newness.

No one can know for sure what's right and best for you or I and all too often we don't know either.

When we are certain, life is or can become constrained, constrained within what we know. When we don't know and are willing to learn, when we are willing to move on and explore, interest, enthusiasm, curiosity and aliveness enter our experience.

A life of not knowing may be scary but with it comes that something which is missing in a constrained life - an energy which we and others sense and which brings a lightness to our step and eyes.

For me this indefinable something is what we are trying to point to when we use the word health.

Health is a bit like love - impossible to catch with words - but we know it when we are it.