MANY years ago, I decided I would give up business and follow my passion; writing! However, things were not as easy as I’d imagined: I had to establish myself as a newspaper columnist and Rome as you know and as I soon found out, wasn’t built in a day.
So, for many years it was my wife, a doctor by profession who looked after much of the financial needs of our home, and there were many such needs.
Today, on her birthday, as I look at my writing which earns me a fairly decent income now, I remember one aspect of those years: Never once did I see or hear my wife complain about how my writing was not earning as much as my business did: A daughter went abroad to study, another got married and the one who went abroad also came back and got married and we just about managed, even as my wife with a smile on her face and nary a sigh let me be.
Here’s another true story that happened in Japan: In order to renovate his house, an owner broke open a wall.
Japanese houses normally have a hollow space between the wooden walls. When opening the wall he found there was a lizard stuck there because a nail from outside had gone into one of its feet.
He saw this, felt pity, and at the same time was curious, as when he checked the nail, it was nailed five years back when the house was first built! How was it possible, he wondered for the lizard to have survived, without moving a single step, since it’s foot was nailed! So he stopped his work and observed the lizard, what it had been doing, and what and how it had been eating.
And soon from somewhere appeared another lizard, with food in its mouth. He was stunned and touched deeply.
For the lizard, stuck by the nail had been fed day after day by another lizard for the past five years. Imagine! It has been doing that untiringly all these years, without giving up hope on its partner.
There’s a lesson here for all of us: Never abandon your loved ones. Never say you’re busy when they really need you.
It’s so easy to do the main job and complain about your husband who doesn’t work like you do, or a son who’s lost his job, but it’s very few who can do so day after day, like my wife and the lizard in the story had done. If you’ve enjoyed this column all these years, thank her..!
