Desire Plus The Doing

Article #2: Desire Plus the Doing

Desire is not enough! We must also have the doing! Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) wrote as follows: “We denounce unto men that they will give over trifling, and not imagine that so great a work as stopping and turning back the powerful course of nature can be brought to pass by some morning draught, or the taking of some precious drug; but that they would be assured that it must needs be that this is a work of labor, and consisteth of many remedies, and a fit connection of them amongst themselves.”

We can have all the desire in the world and yet never achieve our goal of being healthier than we now, are. As Sir Francis indicated, we must gather together all the known attributes of health, the Biodynamic Principles of Health applied according to the Vital Laws of Life, and with these we must work at building health. There will, of course, be times when all will not appear to be going well but, like Robert the Bruce, we must continue to do those things which we know to be required if we ever expect to be better than we now are.

Many long years ago, Cicero said, “The only difficulty, if any there be, consists in making a beginning.” So, here we are. We have travelled a lifetime together; we have learned many new and wonderful things about living. We know that this earth might well become a place of joy, if man would but follow natural law. The sages of all time have taught us that the simple ways of life bring health to body, mind and soul. It is the simple ways that cause the blood to move gently within the arteries and to course merrily through the veins. Obedience to Law causes movement to quicken and the spirit to soar, the memory to clear and wisdom to come. We know that sickness shortens our years, even as health prolongs and gladdens them. We must now make a beginning, for each one of us is required to travel this magic road to health alone; it must be our desire and it must also be of our doing.

In this century, a young woman spent her body’s energies caring for an invalid mother. She, too, lay sick and dying. So ill, in fact, was she that a new young doctor in the village where she lived, was afraid to be seen treating her. He feared that, if he offered his services to this dying girl, that he might lose the few patients he had just obtained. There was no other doctor to whom she could turn.

Her family, knowing no other way, closed her up tight in her room thinking to keep her warm and snug. They fed her freshly boiled broths and did their best. However, this giving, loving girl continued to weaken and her pain became almost unbearable. She finally concluded that death would be a welcome release from an existence such as this. She begged her troubled father to carry her out to the lawn and there to place her on a mattress. She told him to bring her no food and no drink for she was determined to die, but she was also determined to die under God’s heavenly blue sky. She asked him to bring her a stick and then to leave her there.

The father, himself weary with life, did as his daughter quested. He carried her out of the comfortable warm house and placed her on a mattress there on the lawn. No one brought her food or drink, only some pure fresh water. The girl amused herself with her stick, feebly digging from time to time in the earth, first on one side, then on the other. She looked up at the blue sky and watched the birds on the wing. She talked upon occasion with the passersby. And so the day passed by, but still she lived.

The next day she continued to dig, but she ate no food and had no drink; only, pure, cool water. The days passed, days turned into weeks and weeks into a month and still she did not die. This feeble woman, no more than a child in years, began to dig deeper and deeper. A strange and unexpected thing began to happen: she grew stronger and stronger. Suddenly, one day she decided she wanted to LIVE!

In fact, she knew that the reality of life could be hers and it was revealed to her how she could bring it all to pass.

How excited she was. She cried out for food, and they brought her the foods she requested: only God’s sun-ripe fruits would she have, and these in abundance. Soon, she was able to sit up and they then placed her on a couch, still under the blue sky. She continued to dig, rolling first on one side and then on the other, reaching down to the round.

In time, she arose from her couch, and her joy was complete. Like the birds she had watched for so long, she, too, was now on the wing. Health had returned, a gift of nature. It had been there to receive all along but it had taken a deep desire to live and then the knowledge of how to achieve life plus living according to the demands of the human structure and function.

Sometimes we, like the young girl in our story, require no food. Perhaps we can use only the sun, the air, the fresh cooling breezes. Perhaps all we need to do is to forget that we are sick and look around us at this beautiful world and enjoy the free gifts that can bring health. Perhaps all we need is cool, pure water until that time comes when we, too, can reach out and touch a life that is beginning to blossom again. Knowledge, Desire, followed by the Doing! Could these be the magic keys to health?