Tears In Heaven
While trying to digest the news about the recent deaths of some loved ones, a story from long ago resurfaced in my memory. It was actually from a Japanese animation I watched as a kid.
The animation show was about a teenage witch who inherited magical powers from her witch mother. She and her family lived in a quiet, little town. One day, strange things started happening. It was as if someone was trying to play pranks on everybody. The whole town was turned upside down.
To keep a long story short, the good little witch did some investigation and found the culprit behind the scene -- the spirit of a young boy. Typical of stories of this sort, the witch and the spirit started a cat-and-mouse game, but the witch could never quite stop the spirit from causing troubles to the folks in town.
The witch was very determined to capture the spirit until she witnessed him doing one kind deed to save a person's life. By this point, the two had developed a bit of respect for each other. The witch asked the spirit why he had to give everybody a hard time. "Why not? It's amusing. Nobody cares about me. Why should I care about them?" the spirit said.
The witch was perplexed by the answer. She probed further about the background of the spirit and found out that the young boy was an orphan. He drifted from place to place and lived a very hard life. He had no place to call home and had no food to eat, but nobody was willing to help him. He became so weak that he got sick and died. Again, nobody took notice of his death. The young life just evaporated from the world like morning dew. Life went on as usual without missing a beat.
"Nobody even shed a tear for me. That is why I am stuck in this space and cannot go to heaven . . ." As the witch was listening to the spirit recount his story, a drop of tear rolled down her cheek. Suddenly, a bright light shone from the sky.
"What happened? Did you cry for me? You just shed a tear out of genuine care and love. I can now go to heaven!" The spirit waved goodbye to his friend as he walked into the light and disappeared. The quiet little town had its usual peace and serenity restored.
This is just a very simple little story, but it made a big impression on me, and, thus, I remember it to this day.
I wondered as a child: Can it really be possible that a person dies, but nobody cares enough to even shed a tear? That would make the existence that this person lived a really sad one. Yet, even more so, the community that he lived in must be pretty sad, too. People are so cold and indifferent about each other. It is hardly a community at all.
Now that I am older and have lost enough loved ones in my life, I have some different insight from this little story:
If you love someone and care about him/ her enough, don't wait till they are gone to cry your tears. No matter how genuine your tears might be, it is too late. They can hear you no more. Take action now to show them how much you love them when they are here to experience your love. Spend time together. Give them a hug, a kiss. Hold their hands. Do things that matter to them for them. Be kind and be generous with your time.
As people, if all we can think about is "Me, Me, Me!", and fail to take others into consideration, at the end, the ones who get stuck in this space between being alive and dead would be ourselves.
The animation show was about a teenage witch who inherited magical powers from her witch mother. She and her family lived in a quiet, little town. One day, strange things started happening. It was as if someone was trying to play pranks on everybody. The whole town was turned upside down.
To keep a long story short, the good little witch did some investigation and found the culprit behind the scene -- the spirit of a young boy. Typical of stories of this sort, the witch and the spirit started a cat-and-mouse game, but the witch could never quite stop the spirit from causing troubles to the folks in town.
The witch was very determined to capture the spirit until she witnessed him doing one kind deed to save a person's life. By this point, the two had developed a bit of respect for each other. The witch asked the spirit why he had to give everybody a hard time. "Why not? It's amusing. Nobody cares about me. Why should I care about them?" the spirit said.
The witch was perplexed by the answer. She probed further about the background of the spirit and found out that the young boy was an orphan. He drifted from place to place and lived a very hard life. He had no place to call home and had no food to eat, but nobody was willing to help him. He became so weak that he got sick and died. Again, nobody took notice of his death. The young life just evaporated from the world like morning dew. Life went on as usual without missing a beat.
"Nobody even shed a tear for me. That is why I am stuck in this space and cannot go to heaven . . ." As the witch was listening to the spirit recount his story, a drop of tear rolled down her cheek. Suddenly, a bright light shone from the sky.
"What happened? Did you cry for me? You just shed a tear out of genuine care and love. I can now go to heaven!" The spirit waved goodbye to his friend as he walked into the light and disappeared. The quiet little town had its usual peace and serenity restored.
This is just a very simple little story, but it made a big impression on me, and, thus, I remember it to this day.
I wondered as a child: Can it really be possible that a person dies, but nobody cares enough to even shed a tear? That would make the existence that this person lived a really sad one. Yet, even more so, the community that he lived in must be pretty sad, too. People are so cold and indifferent about each other. It is hardly a community at all.
Now that I am older and have lost enough loved ones in my life, I have some different insight from this little story:
If you love someone and care about him/ her enough, don't wait till they are gone to cry your tears. No matter how genuine your tears might be, it is too late. They can hear you no more. Take action now to show them how much you love them when they are here to experience your love. Spend time together. Give them a hug, a kiss. Hold their hands. Do things that matter to them for them. Be kind and be generous with your time.
As people, if all we can think about is "Me, Me, Me!", and fail to take others into consideration, at the end, the ones who get stuck in this space between being alive and dead would be ourselves.
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