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THE TRI-CITIES NOW
| WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2013
COMMUNITY&LIFE
Change one inevitable fact we can embrace Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, when asked to express the heart of Buddhism in a few words, replied “Everything
for
a positive thing for children. They continue to grow and learn something new every day. Their future holds new-
changes.” That’s an apt description of our lives. That change is generally
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from worrying about it. ness and promise. They look That denial can be so forward to new opportunities powerful that it can create and abilities. the delusion of permanence. Remember when you were We expect a child and to stay you beamed young and when someone don’t put noticed the a thought changes in towards you? “My how future disyou’ve grown!” ability or As our lives death. We progress, HEALTH WISE assume our change can Dr. Davidicus Wong friends and become a loved ones source of miswill always be with us and ery. Relationships change our relationships will stay the and end. Friends move away. same. Loved ones die. We lose When we notice the telltale our jobs and sometimes our signs of aging (sometime dreams. after age 30), many of us We have accidents and struggle to maintain our suffer illness. We experience youth or at least the appearpain or lose abilities we took ance of it. Cosmetic medifor granted. cine has flourished over the Our bodies change — due past decade partly because to age, overuse, sunshine and of Botox, fillers and lasers gravity. And we certainly but largely due to society’s don’t beam if someone else emphasis on youth. notices the changes in us. Sometimes the changes in Who wants to hear, “My life are completely unexpecthow big you’ve become!” or ed and catastrophic. Through “Didn’t you have more hair accident or illness, we can the last time I saw you?” lose our loved ones or we can Though we all can grasp become disabled. When this the concept that everything happens, we struggle to make — including our bodies sense of our lives and to start — changes, we get by day to over again. day by ignoring it. For a time, We can never be fully prethe denial of change keeps us
pared for the disasters in life. Yet we can value the people in our lives even more by realizing that we are all mortal. This makes each of our lives and our relationships all the more precious, and it can enhance how we relate. If this was your last day with someone you love, would you be less critical and more caring? What would you say? Would you behave differently? Change is inevitable. Accidents happen. We can become ill. We are all aging. Each of us will die. Let us accept these cold hard truths, and live accordingly. Change is inevitable, but we can continue to learn and to grow. Change is inevitable, but we can all be agents of positive change — with our health, in our relationships and through our community. Dr. Davidicus Wong is a family physician at the PrimeCare Medical Centre. His Healthwise column appears regularly in this paper. You can read more about achieving your positive potential for health at davidicuswong.wordpress.com.
Tee it Up for Literacy Save the date... the “Links to Literacy” Golf Tournament presented by Onni Group will take place on Tuesday, August 27th at Meadow Gardens Golf Club, 19675 Meadow Gardens Way, Pitt Meadows. Join Port Moody Public Library, Onni Group and our other sponsors for a day of golf in support of special literacy projects in the community or just come by for the banquet. The banquet will be emceed by Maureen Dockendorf, Superintendent of Reading for the BC Ministry of Education. Chris Evans, Executive Vice President of Onni, says “Our continued sponsorship of the ‘Links to Literacy’ Tournament not only supports our corporate goal of building sustainable, strong communities, it is a fun event to take part in.” Literacy builds communities because it is the Velcro that makes learning stick, but many adults and children lack the skills to fully participate in our information-rich and knowledge intensive society. Parents who lack adequate literacy skills are not well able to provide the support for their child’s reading and learning that we know is key in preparing young children for school. More than one third of adults in BC struggle with the skills necessary to read a newspaper, fill out a work application form, read a map, or understand a lease. Research shows children who are read to before they start school have better developed language skills and greater interest in reading and learning, but one child in four in BC is “developmentally vulnerable” when beginning kindergarten and one student in five is not completing high school in the expected time. Through “Links to Literacy”, the Library has received funding for a variety of special literacy projects such as laptops for literacy training, work stations and materials for the learning and print disabled, the Read Today, Lead Tomorrow speakers series, Links to Language kits, and a Reading Link partnership with local schools. Contact the library at 604-469-4477 or check our website www.library.portmoody.ca/links for more information.