Wishing That in the Year of the Rabbit the Land May Be Unharmed, the Weather May Be Timely, and All Beings May Be at Peace
Today is the first day of the Year of the Rabbit, and I am here to wish all my readers a Happy New Year. I wish you all the smoothest of sailing in the new year. I pray that in the Year of the Rabbit the land may be unharmed, the weather may be timely, and all beings may be at peace.Three years of pandemic have been hard on everyone, and we long so much to return to normal life. My rural hometown has almost returned to normal. Last December, almost everyone in our village was infected; from last December to this January, a total of five elderly people in our village died.Our village has more than three thousand people; every year from December to January, the normal number of deaths is no fewer than three. So the true excess deaths were only one or two, and the excess mortality rate was below one per thousand. Many smaller neighboring villages had no deaths at all in the past two months.So the villagers' fear of the virus has been completely dispelled; no one in the village wears a mask, and able-bodied people work in the fields as usual. Childhood friends still gather and chat warmly when they meet.Last year was dry for almost a full year; the groundwater in the wells was not as abundant as usual and often could not be pumped up. This year, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the first rain of the lunar new year fell—a welcome rain after a long drought. I hope the whole coming year will be timely and peaceful. The common people have suffered long enough from pandemic and drought! Laozi said that reversal is the movement of the Dao; this year ought to be one in which the people's extreme woe turns to blessing.I am spending the New Year in my rural home. On New Year's Eve, my father and I sat by a bonfire, chatting and roasting sweet potatoes; the long-missing warmth and joy of family reunion had returned. In our age, opportunities for the whole family to gather and enjoy one another are rare, which is why we cherish them so.But some people can no longer enjoy such family happiness. A high school classmate of mine died of viral pneumonia a year and a half ago, leaving many regrets. I plan to go to his village in the next few days to pay New Year's respects to his parents and bring them some money, to help my late classmate's elderly parents and child.Only middle-aged people can understand middle-aged people. The burden on our shoulders is heavy: we must support our parents and raise our children; one could say the health and happiness of the whole family depend on us. To leave this world suddenly at such an age—how heartbreaking it is.Over these years I have stood as it were at the mouth of hell, watching beings suffer and doing my best to rescue them. Having dealt with disease year-round, I have witnessed too many families' suffering; my own mother also left this world because of illness. I long so much for a world without pain, where all beings may be healthy and happy. But this wish cannot be fulfilled, which is why the world needs physicians like us who can help beings escape the suffering of illness.Three days ago at dusk I was walking by East Lake in Wuhan, with a good friend at my side. I told this friend that my greatest wish in life is to cure a few more patients while I am alive, and that after I die, the medical articles I leave behind may still help other medical people save others.If one day the medical books I have written in my lifetime can appear on the medical shelves of bookshops or libraries, becoming references for other medical learners and playing even the tiniest role in raising later generations' medical literacy, I will be fully satisfied. For I myself gradually deepened my understanding of medicine by reading the medical works left by my predecessors.Beautiful wishes represent our heartfelt intentions, but only unremitting effort provides solid assurance; both heaven's will and human effort matter. In the new year, I hope that while heaven favors us, we all also work together, so that our human world may have less suffering and more happiness.