The Prescription
Dear old and new friends,
The author Robert Fulghum wrote about a personal account of a lady he knew who went to a psychiatrist in relation to some troubles. After attentively listening to her, the psychiatrist wrote out a prescription, folded it and gave it to her saying, “Promise you won’t return until you have used up this prescription.” She agreed and took the prescription to her druggist. After reading it he handed it back to her, “I can’t fill this,” he said, “but you can.”
The prescription? “Spend one hour some Sunday watching the sunrise while walking in a cemetery.” Fulghum says this woman, who no longer was attending church, used that prescription and does so now several times a year. He concludes he doesn’t know if her Sunday practice entitles her to heaven, but he does know that her life here on earth is no longer the hell it once was.
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Today we eat and read…and do everything in a hurry. Our mothers wisely told
us to slow down and chew our food when we ate. Unlike reading for pleasure or
information, when we read for inner-formation it requires that same rule. What is
read for soul growth should be embraced, digested and known from the inside
out. Read a little, think a lot!
The true story of that woman and her unusual prescription is a modern parable.
Read it again and unhurriedly chew on it to help you digest its meaning. As you do, ask yourself the following questions slowly one by one:
What, if anything, does this story have to do with me and my life?
Why was it necessary to spend an entire hour in a cemetery?
What else besides walking was she to do during that hour?
Why was she to be in a cemetery at such an early hour as sunrise?
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