About
four years ago, I was going through the mental tortures of whether or not to
finally go through with my nearly 20-year delayed hip replacement surgery. The doctors told me “no” and “wait out as long
as you can, Mary” because of my chronological age, but my body was telling me
“yes, we think it is time” because of my physical age. I already knew from past procedures and
experiences that it would not be the roughly 2 hour surgery that would affect
me the most, but it would be the mental anguish anticipation before the surgery
and the recovery and rehabilitation aftermath that would lead to life and self-transformations. Was it just better to settle and stay with
the pain I had known my entire life? Or,
did I just finally plunge in to a procedure that everyone claimed was a quality
life saver and giver? I
relied on my body to talk to me, but a vulnerable body is weakened even more by
a mind that is already so powerful and goes into a raging and locker-shoving
bully more often than not in decision-making mode. It did not help that I was
already an over analyzer and thinker that eventually reached a point where I
could not handle the mental bully and would just do whatever just to shut it
up. “Whatever” was, to me, the same as “rash
decisions.” Yes, I have been guilty of
those. Alas, I am my worst enemy. Then again, aren’t we all? My
father, of course, knows how my mind works.
Probably because his mind is somewhat the same, but on a much more
advanced level that I can only wish to attain one day. My entire family felt the intense ripple
effects of my worries, concerns, thoughts, and cares with what I should
do. This is the thing about family and
illnesses—you will hear the surface story, but you will never listen to the
underlying stories that earthquake the entire family foundation—if there is
even a foundation to begin with. My
father stepped in with a request to see a fortune teller. Truth
be told, I was surprised with his resolution response, but not overly surprised
when he indicated the importance of seeing the fortune teller to predict the
long-term outlook of my health and the short-term determination if it was,
indeed, the right timing to undergo surgery number—well, truth be told, we had
lost track at that point. Timing is
almost everything in life. The
supposedly best fortune teller to foresee our entire family’s future was
concluded to be in Taiwan. Therefore,
that summer that my stepmother headed to Taiwan for her annual vacation of
dumpling popping, family reuniting, and fun exploring required the side trip of
meeting this fortune teller. Upon
the fortune teller’s request, my stepmother distributed out all our
birth dates. Upon my stepmother’s
return, I eagerly expected tales of images that appeared in the foggy crystal
ball, the cloaked and mysterious fortune teller with piercing eyes that could
decipher the soul of my future and of me, and the conclusions from long and winding
palm lines. What would my future
be? Would I be a success in terms of
society of marriage, children, and a job?
Most importantly, would I be healthy?
Instead,
my stepmother handed me a rustic red scroll filled with delicate and intricate
Chinese characters written on it. Here
was this piece of paper that told me my future, and I could not even read
it. Translating for the fortune teller,
she explained my future: By
now, I was supposed to be married if I really wanted it (whatever that meant)
or at least meet my soul mate; Did not happen.
The fortune teller also predicted that I would be married, but later in
life; Question mark and shrug of shoulders to fortune teller. By now, I would have enjoyed blissful and
blessed years of good health after a successful hip replacement; Checkmate,
fortune teller. In my 40’s, I would have
to deal with another major health issue or scare; On edge now, fortune teller. After the 40’s, the fortune teller could not
see any more years of my life. This had
and still has me wondering that maybe I am destined to be dead by the time I’m
50. I was
distraught and upset. In the days after,
I examined the scroll carefully to try to understand the unreadable Chinese
characters. My innate over contemplative
quality kicked in overdrive, leaving me with more wandering thoughts and
questions than answers about my future. Could
I fight against what the fortune teller had predicted or was my future now
destined and set in stone by him? What
or who exactly makes our futures? Do we
make our future from the feelings of inadequacy that we are losers, never good
enough, and our inner demons that haunt us and eventually motivate us to create
our future? Or, are our futures made
from something more that is beyond us, cannot be seen, and that is written in
the stars and in the heavens above that no fortune teller, crystal ball, or
scroll of Chinese characters says? A
fortune teller I never met who wrote my future only based on my mere birth date
made me search inward that there comes a point where the thinking and analyzing
of outsiders and ourselves must stop for “the plunge,” or action and doing, to
begin. I
admit it. 33 years later, and I still
get as self-conscious as ever. I still
feel like I face-off with my worst enemy much more than I care or ever wish to. All of us and most definitely I have wasted
and still waste time and energy on caring and worrying about what others
thought or still think about me, resulting in the worst case scenario of
self-fulfilling prophecy—you are or become what others perceive and
believe. However, the great gifts that
come from self-conscious, worst enemy, and inadequacy are motivation and the
desire to improve to look towards and forward to create the future. I
have always mentally battled with the decision-making process in regards to my
future out of fear that the choices I made will be filled with regrets. However, I always act and eventually plunge accordingly
out of my own personal refusal to live a life of misery or complaints. I refuse and choose and, from there on,
destiny and higher above heavens will play their parts completely out of my
hands and control. And, I am coming to
accept this. All of this. I often wish that there is a temporary
off-switch to my brain. To quiet and
silence my loud mind for just a little while.
Every so often, I will think of the fortune teller and the scroll in the
midst of such loud thoughts that play in my head and I think how this anonymous
fortune teller made me realize that my greatest fortune lies in my abilities to
act and be my very own fortune teller. What or who exactly do you think makes our
futures? Is it you? Or, is it beyond you? Keep smilin’ until we meet again, Mary
;-) |
 |
|||||||||||
 
|
|
 |
|||||||||
    |
|||||||||||
