Friday, May 17th, 2013

My Path is Very Difficult

Manuels, Newfoundland

“My path is very difficult, I am blind and my feet are slipping again and again. Therefore, may the saints help me by granting the stick of their mercy as my support.”

The above passage is from the text Chaitanya Charitamrita, and when I came upon it in my reading this very day, it shook me into a moment of coincidence, analogously, the ‘path’ is likened to our journey in life. We may not always see what’s up ahead; we might even lose our footage or step in mud, or just be exhausted, and hence, slip or fall.

When I saw Ted today, this passage and Ted’s life were on a parallel. Ted and I are friends for ten years now, he is a patient of multiple sclerosis. He came to see me just to chat and recall our similarities in our individual journeys across Canada.

After Ted removed his shoes at the door (and this he did so with some strain) we sat in the living room of Rikin’s condo overlooking beautiful Conception Bay. Ted spoke of his continual fatigue attacks. He also mentioned having his periods of almost going blind. These are, I understand, some symptoms of MS. All along through his struggle, though, he gets humbled and gets reminded of the greater force controlling him. These epiphanies actually bring a richness to his life.

He and I first met in 2003 on the Trans Canada Hwy, I was on my 2nd cross nation trek, and he was cycling with a cause – to create an awareness of the fatal encumbrance of multiple sclerosis. The location was just north of Sault Saint Marie, the city, on the strip of the highway rimmed with rock and trees. He and I hit it off right away so to speak. He’s been struggling with the disease for years now. He had been an editor for a Maritimes newspaper, but had to resign his work for obvious physical reasons. He’s done some writings about his trip on a bicycle across a massive land, and in his heart he constantly writes mentally about the realizations that keep coming up in life.

Ted Warren, a travelling friend, seems to be going okay, despite the difficult path he’s on. I can’t imagine the pain, not feeling it. His spirits are up though. We had a good chat, and on his behalf, I’ll give him a good chant in hoping he’ll continue to cope. He really downed well, the smoothie that Nitai Ram prepared. Ted went for seconds, thirds, if I’m not mistaken. So, even though his path is a difficult one because of the MS, he’s much better off than many people I know, simply because he believes.

7 KM