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Archive - Volume 1, Number 1

Doc's Commentary
"Why did this happen to me?"

When depression or the "why did this happen to me" syndrome invades your peaceful world and your stress meter starts to go off the scale; our first helpful reaction is to take a few deep breathes, step back and punt. Life has just given us a challenge in which hidden deep within our soul is a lesson to be learned. We can only maintain our serenity by recognizing our stress for what it is – another opportunity to grow in wisdom and maturity. As we calm our mind and heart we realize that life is a series of serendipity experiences and our challenge is to seek out the message in order to realize the healing or growth to which we are entitled. Life moves in cycles; we make our own good or bad days by our attitudes and the thoughts we have. This is true because every Friday’s Golgotha is just as surely followed by Sunday’s resurrection.

The truth of this law is expressed in the word Serendipity. The word serendipity originated from the story of the Princes of Serendip. The word was first coined by Horace Walpole in the eighteenth century; 1754 to be exact. He tells of a tale of the three Princes of Serendip (an ancient name of Sri Lanka). The three princes while traveling through the world, seldom found the treasures they were looking for, but always ran into other treasures equally great or greater which they were not seeking. While searching for one thing they found something else, and they finally realized that this was one of life’s lessons. Then life took on a new and more wonderful meaning and each day resulted in a new and thrilling experience. They had a new thrilling approach to life.

Webster defines Serendipity as; "the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for." Can this one word become the focus around which our life evolves and can be the genesis of our attitudes and moods.

Another word introduced by the Princes was Apocatastasis. If we can remember this word when life takes a dark turn it can provide hope and solve many of life’s problems as well as bring us back from the dungeons of depression. Apocatastasis is defined as; "The serendipitous secret that in every seed of seeming tragedy is hidden the fruit of glory and reward."

The story of Apocatastasis goes something like this. It seems that one day a man named Sabi Ben Suh came to the Princes for consultation, while they were passing through the ancient region of Polonnaruwa in old Ceylon. Sabi Ben Suh, a young, handsomely accoutered mirza (man of nobility) disconsolately told the Princes his unfortunate story. A flood had washed away his newly-built summer home on a beautiful estate which he had purchased at great cost on the banks of a river. The irony about it was that the stream had never been known to flood, but no sooner had Sabi Ben Suh built his house than the waters came, leaving him poorer and no wiser. . No wiser, that is, until one of the Princes looked at him observantly and said "Apocatastasis!"

Three years later when the Princes of Serendip returned to Polonnaruwa a messenger came to them with an invitation from the mirza. Sabi Ben wanted them to visit him in his new summer mansion situated on a lovely promontory, high above the river. What had happened? Well, the devastation of his former home had forced him to search for new territory. He discovered not only the new location but a field of pure agates.

"Oh, my Princes!" exclaimed Sabi Ben Suh. "But for your assurance of apocatastasis I would never have had the patience or the faith to have what is mine today. But for you I would have spent my days in remorse!" The Princes smiled and said, "If only all men could learn the secret! If only everyone could remember the saying, "until tomorrow becomes today, men will be blind to the good fortune hidden in unfortunate acts." The mirza bowed low and said, "How true it is, Until tomorrow becomes today, we are reluctant to believe."

What he was saying was that even when he stood in the devastation of his flood-wrecked home, the art of apocatastasis had helped him project his thoughts out of the ruins and into that distant day when good would come out of seeming misfortune. Many times in my life when the dark days of depressions come to me I’ve used the word apocatastasis to project myself six months into the future when I will understand the lessons life is trying to teach me if I will but have the faith.

A dramatic demonstration of apocatastasis happened in my wife’s life a couple of years ago. She was involved in an automobile accident when an extremely drunk driver hit her head on in the early afternoon. The driver left the scene of the accident leaving her dazed and wondering ‘what happened’. The intoxicated driver turned her van over a couple of miles down the road.

Her physical injuries were slight but her emotional injuries were severe as she realized it could have been a life threatening accident and she couldn’t understand why it happened to her. It happened at a curve in the road, she was traveling under the speed limit, and well within her lane. One of her deepest wounds was the fact that the driver left her there not even stopping to offer aid or get help.

I’m not sure what ever happened to the driver, whether this accident was a learning experience in which she changed her lifestyle or not. I’m sure it was all a part of her Karma and whether she grew from the experience or not would have been wholly her decision.

Regardless, it was difficult for my wife to feel the healing power of the word apocatastasis when she held such feelings of revenge and disgust for the drunk driver. It took about three months when on a follow-up visit to the doctor as a result of her injuries from this accident that she mentioned another symptom she had that was unrelated to the accident but had been a concern of hers for some time. The doctor ordered some test and we found out that she had colon cancer but it was in the early stages so it was successfully surgically corrected. Had it not been for this accident and forced medical treatment required, she never would have found the cancer until it was too late to be treated. It was then that the good fortune of the accident manifested itself.

If only we could remember the word apocatastasis when unfortunate events happen in our lives and we could have faith in the working out of the problems in life to our ultimate good. If only we have the faith to believe, our good will surely come our way if we are constantly looking for the serendipitous meaning behind all our life experiences.

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