‘All we are is dust in the wind’

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (pardon me but I don’t mind), I am again putting out the lyrics of my favorite song that has a humbling effect on me and, I’m sure, on anybody who digests its lyrics. Yes, I’ve put out the song Dust In The Wind by Kansas in previous columns during this solemn time of reflection and I think another replaying of it won’t do any harm.

Okay, all together now:

Dust In The Wind

By Kansas

I close my eyes

Only for a moment and the moment’s gone.

All my dreams

Pass before my eyes with curiosity.

Dust in the wind,

All we are is dust in the wind.

Same old song

Just a drop of water in an endless sea.

All we do crumbles to the ground

Though we refuse to see.

Dust in the wind,

All we are is dust in the wind.

Now don’t hang on

Nothin’ last forever but the earth and sky.

It slips away

and all your money won’t another minute buy.

Dust in the wind,

All we are is dust in the wind,

All we are is dust in the wind.

Everything is dust in the wind,

Everything is dust in the wind.

And maybe while humming that song, you and I can further reflect on our mortality with the help of the following quotations Funfare is reprinting from You Can’t Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought by Roger & Peter McWilliams, my second copy of one of my favorite books; the first one, a gift to me by my friend Raoul Tidalgo, I gave to Lucy Torres and the second one given to me by STAR contributor and Ateneo professor Jonathan Chua who got it at a book sale in Greenhills prophetically on the day my column with quotes from the book was published.

Here they are:

• The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself. — Publilius Syrus, First Century B.C.

• I don’t do anything that’s bad for me. I don’t like to be made nervous or angry. Any time you get upset it tears down your nervous system. — Mae West

• Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. — Psalm 23

• God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should he changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. — Reinhold Niebuhr, 1943

• Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. — Norman Cousins

• I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure — which is: Try to please everybody. — Herbert Bayard Swope

• Either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is to gain; for eternity is then only a single night. — Plato

• Most of the time we think we’re sick, it’s all in the mind .—Thomas Wolfe

• Once you accept your own death, all of a sudden you’re free to live. You no longer care about your reputation. You no longer care except so far as your life can be used tactically — to promote a cause you believe in. — Saul Alinsky

• One who longs for death is miserable, but more miserable is he who fears it. — Julius Wilhelm Zincgref, 1628

• Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. — Elbert Hubbard

• Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. – John Wesley

Food for the soul

Here’s an interesting contribution from my Cebuano doctor-friend:

A Prayer For All Souls Day

By Henry L. Yu, M.D.

Lord, for us who are still here on earth, help us not to forget that life is too short and uncertain. Never allow fame and fortune to transform us into somebody You never designed us to be.

Help us to stay humble by looking back and be reminded of who we were or what we went through to become what we are today.

Help us to become better as we look back to yesteryear’s glory, mystery, triumph and victory. Let Your spirit continue to guide us in our journeys.

Lord, we thank You for the Gift of Life that You continually give us day after day. Thank you for the privilege of being alive.

Lord, we thank You for the Gift of Life that You once gave to our beloved relatives and friends who have gone ahead of us into the Great Beyond. We thank You for the blessings that You have bestowed upon them during their journeys on this earth.

We pray that they continue to glorify You with the life that they have lived and the way they made use of their blessings.

We lift up to You our grief and sorrow, confident that You will change our mourning into rejoicing that our departed loved ones are now safely back home with You.

Let Your perpetual light shine upon them. And may the souls of all our faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in Your peace.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. Amen.

Health alert

And here’s another interesting item from my other doctor-friend. Dr. Welson Yap:

Natural therapy for clear vein opening:

Ingredients:

• Lemon Juice, one (1) cup

• Ginger Juice, one (1) cup

• Garlic Juice, one (1) cup.

• Apple Cider Vinegar, one (1)cup.

Direction: Mix all of the above and boil on light flame for half an hour until the mix is reduced to three (3) cups, then keep to cool. After cooling, mix three (3) cups of natural honey and keep in a bottle. Every morning before breakfast, take one (1) tablespoon-ful. The blockage in your veins will open. No need for angiography or bypass.

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