On life (100) – ”New Chapters” – 15/11/2015

   Alone, he sat in his balcony enjoying the awe and quietude of sunset, having spent a hectic workday. His life passed before him like a train which he wished would have stopped at some station. “It’s a lifetime mistake,” he pondered.

   Throughout his life, man strives toward growth and development. In the course of this, he might make wrong decisions or choose irresponsible friends. Yet, this is not the end: for as long as you live, you have a chance to change your path. You cannot tear a single page of your life; yet, you can fill it with new chapters within which you prove to the world that you have changed.

   However, to write a new chapter, you need to understand the old ones quite well. Also, you have to set your new image, plan your steps, and decide what you want to do. Thus, you can write a new chapter in your life, in like manner many great people did.

   For instance, Sir Isaac Newton was born three months after his father’s death: on January 4, 1643, at a hamlet in Lincolnshire. At the age of three, his mother left him in his grandmother’s custody that she might remarry.

   Newton started his academic career at the age of twelve. It ended when he was seventeen whereby he left The King’s School at Grantham. He returned home to find his mother widowed. She was planning that his future be no different from his father’s. The latter was a farmer! Yet, a master at The King’s School, Henry Stokes, convinced his mother to allow him continue his education. Thus, Newton started writing a new chapter in his life. He did his best and became one of the best students. He was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge.

   In Newton’s life book, there are many great chapters: for he became a renowned scientist, and one of the most famous contributors to physics and mathematics. Even more, he discovered many laws, like that of Universal Gravitation. Hence, Newton, the poor farmer, became Fellow of the Royal Society, a member of the British Parliament, and so on.

   You have your life before you. You cannot undo previous days, but you can still plan for new ones.

General Bishop
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center