When the doorbell rang, I knew it
was him. We had talked the night before, and he was visiting us in this place
where he had helped them rewrite the scripts of their lives. I reached for the
door, turned the knob, and my lower jaw fell! I stared at a man on a wheel
chair, trying to adjust his oxygen mask. Before pity could register on my face,
Jon spread his hands, inviting me for a hug. He had a broad smile, well
arranged white teeth, and was not surprised at the shock each of us registered
upon seeing the man behind the cool, calm and collected voice on the other side
of the phone. He had a tight and warm embrace, after which he wheeled himself
through the door, strategically stopping at a place he could see all the five
followers would had come to listen to his wisdom. Jon looked at each one of us,
from left to right, scanning each of us with eyes that seemed to infiltrate our
minds! He began to talk. His voice as steady and confident as he always sounded
on phone…
“If you want to know the value of time, ask a man who doesn’t have a
lot of it!”
He reached for his oxygen mask, took
one long break, let it hang from his neck and continued; “Sometimes we live
life so casually that we never take time to meditate on the beauty and grandeur
of this terrestrial ball in the middle of space that we live on called earth.
Having lived casually, we become casualties of unfulfilled dreams, and so live
unhappy lives. We live on a constant spiral of measuring life by how many expectations
meet, and that leaves us with zero treasurable experience. We fall in the trap
of collecting the ever elusive material things, at the expense of creating
memories that last. Are you surprised that depression is a leading condition,
and suicide rates have increased” Jon reached for a bag that hang on the back
side of his motorized wheelchair. He pulled out five electric bulbs and asked
each one of us to collect one. We did. “Every day, ONLY at the TOP OF EVERY
HOUR, WHEN YOU REMEMBER, day time or night time, you are to put TEN pebbles of
sand into your special bulb” We nodded. “You will later get to know how special
this bulb is” He placed a manila envelope on the ground, turned his wheelchair,
and headed for the door. “Right now it is exactly noon. That envelop contains the
sand, you can start with this hour if you want” Joh said waving his left hand
in the air, as the right hand steered his wheelchair to the door. He paused at
the door, placed his gas mask in place, too a long breath, and off the
mysterious man went.
The bulbs had a small opening
that allowed only one sand particle at a time. We added each their ten, shared
the sand, and headed out of this place that Jon meets his followers.
Six months later was our next
meet up. We came with our bulbs. To my surprise, two of the bulbs were lit,
except mine and Leo’s. Jon showed up in his usual style. “I see what you have
accomplished with the bulbs. Three of you still have the bulbs as I gave them,
only with some pebbles of sand. The other two have turned their bulbs into
lamps” He said with loud claps amid his infectious smile. “Tell us what you
did, uuhh, Phil.” “I set my watch to remind me consistently every hour for six
hours from 5 am, and on the fourth month, as I added the last particles, my
bulb lit” Explained Phil. Netto had a similar story. “See, this bulb is about
consistency, even if it is three hours a day. But consistently, every day. I
knew where I had gone wrong. I had added my particles at least six times a day,
but there were no definite time, it would be in the morning, sometimes other times midday. I explained that to Jon.
“And that is the lesson. Consistency. Get a plan an even if little specific things
at particular times every and one day, these little things will light up for tire
life. If not, you will end up like the many people who have amazing bulbs given
to them by the creator in various forms, but which, due to inconsistency, and
the interruptions of the noise of your digital age, never turn into colourful
lamps to our feet” He said, pointing at Phi’ bulb which was now turning blue
and making even the old furniture in this room look beautiful… And Jon left!
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