Reflecting on Father's Day: Lost and Found, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Metamorphoses

Father's Day has been celebrated in many countries. In my country it's yesterday, August 8th. With my children grown-up and independent, I forget my role as a father, more often than not. So, thanks to this holiday as it  reminds me of my days as a father when my children were still small. 

Thus, while I went to the coffee shop to have my usual brunch, the same sandwich and coffee tasted more pleasant, with heartwarming words received from my beloved family earlier on the day.

Then, I continued studying my 4th Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night's Dream, which consists of 5 acts and I've already read two of them. In the evening (which was a midsummer night  indeed😄), I joined a meeting of my fellow toastmasters, with an interesting meeting theme "Lost and Found".

My "midsummer night" was well spent with my toastmasters, as always, and afterwards I couldn't help continue reflecting on the meeting theme. 

While most people may refer material, tangible items to "Lost and Found", I unconsciously associated something spiritual and intangible with it, and I would realize why it's so only at the end of my reflection.

For me, the first thing that I lost and will never regain is time, as Benjamin Franklin said in his timeless quote "Lost time is never found again."  To this end, I appreciate that the lost will never be found again but I don't regret it, for I have acquired something equally if not more precious in exchange of my lost time: family raising, personal learning and growth, helping others, to just name a few.

My second lost item of significance is personal freedom. While not totally lost, it had been largely constrained during my career and family raising years. Luckily, my children are all grown up and now in my retirement, I've "found" my personal freedom, and am in the process of self-actualization, or, in other words, pursuing things that I'm genuinely interested in.

In retrospect, I felt blissful, too, for having the opportunity to help people find something they lost: people who lost their self-confidence and I helped them regain it with my empathy, recognition, encouragement and support where proper. Watching them striving ahead with regained self-confidence was the happiest moment in my life.

There are quite a few others that I've lost over the years: among others, my habits as a chain smoker, an immoderate whiskey drinker, an indulgent party goer and a glutton. I don't regret losing them, though, for without them my desire for material pleasures has been lowered, allowing me to live in a more fulfilling and healthier manner. 

My recent major loss is racing in marathon (and earlier triathlon) events. Having participated in hundreds of such events for 20 years, I was a serious albeit amateur runner. However, my racing career was disrupted by the emergence of COVID-19. The pandemic has reshaped people's lives, and for me personally, I had the epiphany of pursuing things that are equally worthwhile, instead of devoting myself continuously to marathon races alone. I still jog regularly, but do not train for participating in races these days. I'm happy with my new hobbies of reading, blogging, biking, and backpacking instead of marathon racing now. One day, though, I may train and race again in a marathon event—who knows?

Elsewhere, I had never seriously considered losing weight before I turned 60. Now, 5 years on, I've lost 10% of my weight, and I have no plan to find it again - not at this time.

Inevitably, along the way I lost contact with some acquaintances or friends, too. It's a shame but that's the fact of life: as we move on our individual, divergent paths, we need to part so we can find the like-minded people in our new journey ahead. So, farewell  my friends, till our paths will cross again.

To this end, I realized that while reflecting on the theme of "Lost and Found", I unconsciously associated it with my personal transformation, too.  This also brought me to the two Metamorphoses I read last year, masterpieces about the theme of transformation authored by Ovid and Kafka respectively, amazingly over two thousand years apart.

With that, my "Lost and Found" reflection and mind wandering is done. I felt recharged fully now to continue studying my A Midsummer Night's Dream.😊