Frans van der Reep

LOVE LIFE

Tears and fears and feeling proud, To say ‘I love you’ right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds, I’ve looked at life that way
But now old friends are acting strange, They shake their heads, they say I’ve changed
But something’s lost and something’s gained, In living every day
I’ve looked at life from both side now, from win and lose and still somehow
It’s life illusions I recall, I really don’t know life at all

Joni Mitchel

As I feel I should show up now and take responsibility for who I am, why I love life,  I will share with you some aspects of my life as they might be of value for you.

I was born in 1954. In 1956 I suffered from severe whooping cough and as a complication of this I developed double pneumonia, reaching a climax on Christmas Eve 1956. Doctors gave up and advised my parents to surrender and let me die, which they refused to do. In this hospital there was a tradition that nurses would sing Christmas carols standing around the ill child’s cod. So they did this with me as well. And then something happened. Suddenly, as my mother told me, there was something in the air,  I became quiet, fell asleep and miraculously survived.

Then a period of 10 years passed by in which I suffered from pneumonia, on average each month. I needed lots of medication to control the chronic inflammations. The pills ruined my teeth. But I got stronger and grew older.

At the age of 15 I cycled to Switzerland on my own. I needed space. I needed to feel independent and healthy. I needed to feel that there was also a place for me in this world. In my short life this was the second miracle I witnessed. At the age of 16 I cycled again to Switzerland, but this time I did so in 3 days. That was all it took to cover the 800 kilometers separating my parent’s house and the Swiss town of Interlaken. I stayed there in the youth hostel for one day and then returned home in 4 days.

At the age of 20, after one year at university, the inflammations woke up again. One lung had to be removed and the other one was highly likely to develop the same illness. Would the inflammation stop? If so, I had a chance. If not, it was my time to leave this world. Once again I surprised the medical doctors when after 5 years I was still around. I finished university  and my adult life started to unroll. That was the third miracle.

At the age of 36 my other lung collapsed, pneumothorax. Since it is a simple biological fact that it is impossible to live without either of your lungs, I was in big trouble. By now I was a married man with two young children and the 3^rd on its way. This was the 3^rd rendez vous with the end of life. I could not breathe any longer and choked. Not a very pleasant experience. I passed away for some time, they managed to get me to a hospital and it took doctors a long time to successfully reanimate me, a stretch of time by far long enough to have caused severe brain damage or worse. Which didn’t happen to me.

When I woke up I was different, transformed and since then I really wondered what was happening and why. It took me many months to accept earthly life again. A long period of adaptation and orientation started then. These events helped me to understand the purpose of my life and to experience and live my real talent in a meaningful life.

Well, what have I learned from this? First of all, my health is excellent now: Life is a miracle. Life is about being good, compassionate to oneself and others, about being sincere, pure and meaningful, and about bringing ‘light to the planet’. We, humans, are the Light and that’s what we should do, enlighten. So, I get very annoyed by those who deny that almost divine command and ‘play tricks’. That’s one of the reasons, I found out, why I started working in a corporate environment: to set an example (not ‘playing tricks’). I’m still working there today.

To me it’s obvious we should avoid transgressions. If something doesn’t feel good deep down inside it probably isn’t, and if a something feels very “right” don’t neglect it either.

Life has been an incredible experience so far for me. Each time I was struggling and needed help there was support available. In my experience that holds not only for me but for all of us. I truly believe we will never experience something we cannot handle.  It is an incredible experience to feel how this guidance and support, the Divine part in us, is working very hard and caring about us so that we end up where we belong. So, accept life unconditionally!

Life itself is a fragile Miracle. It is given to us to live it, enjoy it, pass it on, and make planet Earth a little lighter. Please consider this viewpoint, embrace life for all it’s worth.

I wish you the strength to stay out of the dark. Let your  life unfold itself!!