(MY from Aomori Prefecture/60s/Male/Construction)
“There’s something wrong with me.” One night, I suddenly felt something strange going on with my body. That was last fall. Normally it was time for me to go to bed, but I suddenly thought, “Maybe I’ll smoke a cigarette and see how things are.” As soon as my wife saw me as I headed to the kitchen, she hurriedly called for my son-in-law, shouting, “My husband!” At the discretion of my son-in-law, who is a doctor, I was immediately taken to the ER. I had suffered a cerebral infarction.
Awaken By the Love of My Family
I was connected to many tubes and was unable to eat or even go to the bathroom on my own. I was so frustrated and felt pathetic that I couldn’t stop crying and thinking, “If only I could go back in time before I collapsed…” Fortunately, I wasn’t paralyzed, but my brain suffered from aftereffects, and even after I was discharged from the hospital, I wasn’t feeling good. Then my wife invited me to go to Hikari no Yakata.
Kami’s teachings, which I hadn’t heard in a while, were deeply ingrained in my kokoro, and the haze in my heart seemed to clear up. Until then, I had thought that I wanted to live a full but short life. As a business owner, I traveled all over the country and often drank with friends until the wee hours of the morning. Even though it was for my family, I was doing everything I wanted. Even so, as soon as my children learned that I had collapsed, they rushed over to me and called me saying; “Dad!” No matter what I did or said my wife continued to support me without making faces. When I understood the love of my family, my kokoro began to move thinking, “I will accept the present and live my life to the fullest.”
A Sense of Calmness Never Experienced Before
Although people can’t tell from the outside, due to the aftereffects, I can’t do calculations or write sentences as much as I used to. Sometimes my memory skips a few seconds. However, since the treatment was quick after the onset of the disease, I am able to speak and move my body as I wish. “This is how I am,” I tell the people around me with a smile, and am able to rely on others.
After I returned to work, I started asking younger employees more often if they could come over and help. I can only be grateful to my colleagues who cheerfully support me and ask me, “President, did you do something again?” I think things have changed a lot since the days when I used to just do everything the way I wanted and say, “Just write as I say.” Be honest about what I can’t do, and be generous about what I can do. This is the feeling of comfort I feel in my every day.
The Life I Received Under the Protection of Kami
I feel my condition is getting better, and now I only have check-ups at the hospital once every six months. The doctor said, “You’re not young, so let’s take it slow.”
I still think about it to this day. If I hadn’t been doing something right by my wife’s side that night… If I had ignored the discomfort in my body and just fell asleep that night… When I think about it, everything from my wife noticing something strange, to my son-in-law who happened to be at our house is a blessing. Each one of them worked together to save my life. The “life” and “kokoro” that seem to be our own, but cannot be controlled by our own strength or effort. I can only be grateful to Kami for protecting me.
Finding the Principles Behind the Story from Shinji
The more you gain awareness from the teachings, people can adapt their feelings to the environment and live.
Accepting the change of the era with the kokoro and living with the environment.
This kokoro is what true health means.
The kokoro(life) of a person is protected in a family where its members learn the teachings and their kokoro(unmei) comes together based on the principles.
Shinji that Kami reveals are a teaching on how to live life in order to be happy. Because it is an unchanging principle that relates to all people, if you live according to the teachings, your life will definitely change for the better.