(Minghui.org) 2020 has shaped up to be a very unfortunate year, as the world has met with many disasters. But even in the midst of these negative events, I've been able to find a silver lining and a new starting point in my life. 

A Miserable 2019 

My husband and I are both 77 years old. As we've aged, we have experienced many difficult times; our health has also been deteriorating. 

My husband, for one, has many chronic conditions. He's taken Chinese herbal medicine for a long time, to no effect. 

On November 22, 2019, he was hospitalized for severe anemia. Although he was discharged four days later, we had to call an ambulance for him on November 29. That day, he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 

A week later, we brought him home, but he couldn't survive without a ventilator and ozone disinfection equipment. These items cost us more than 30,000 yuan altogether. 

Though I was exhausted from taking care of him all day, my own condition was not good either since I have a long history of high blood pressure and coronary heart disease.

I wished that this miserable year would end faster and that the new year would bring better luck. However, the worst thing happened to me at 10 P.M.on December 31. I suddenly felt an ache in my stomach that kept intensifying, to the point where I got no sleep that entire night. With my husband confined to his bed and my kids not around, I had no choice but to call my sister, who was 4 years younger than me.

My sister came to my house first thing in the morning and brought me to the emergency room. As usual, she told me to recite “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” and stayed with me after my treatment was done. She took me home in the afternoon and cooked dinner for me and my husband. She took care of us until the next afternoon.

However, my nightmare was not over. Two days later, on January 4th at around 11 P.M., my husband fell off the bed onto the ground and hurt his back. He couldn't stop screaming because of the pain. I didn't know what to do and called my sister again.

Again, she put aside all her work and came to my house as quickly as possible. 

Exploring the Meaning of Life

When I looked back at my life, I couldn't help wonder what it all really meant. My husband and I have always been tortured by various diseases. It's not just us either – many patients are in and out of hospitals, helpless and hopeless. 

What's more, most of the money my husband and I saved for our whole life was spent on hospital bills.

So how come my sister's situation is so different? She is 73 years old, and for the last 23 years she hadn't taken any medicine. She was always healthy, optimistic, kind, altruistic, and pure-hearted. She was by my side every time I went through a tough time and she would always tell me, “Do not thank me, the one who you really should appreciate is Master Li (Falun Dafa's founder). He taught us to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and to be a good person, to always put ourselves in other people's shoes, and to be selfless. I only follow the teachings of my Master.”

I realized that Falun Dafa was the reason why my sister was always healthy, both in body and in mind. 

Actually, I did practice Falun Dafa a long time ago. At that time, I simply practiced the exercises for health purposes. I didn’t understand the spiritual basis of Falun Dafa, which was to follow three principles: Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Later, when the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution against Falun Dafa, I quit and started to practice Tai-Chi instead.

Practicing Falun Dafa Again

When I realized that Falun Dafa was the key, I started to do the five sets of exercises with my sister. To my surprise, I still remembered all the movements. I guess Master was still waiting for me. 

I thought about the gastroenteritis I got a few weeks ago. It was very different compared to the same condition I had before. Even after two hours of being on IV, my stomach pain wasn't getting any better. But the stomach pain was very strange, as I could feel air circulating counter-clockwise around my abdomen. It was extremely painful only when the air reached the center of my stomach. Otherwise, it was tolerable. 

I had a thought: What if this time, it was Master purifying my body? 

That whole day, I couldn't eat anything; however, I slept very well at night. The next morning, the pain went away and I became very energetic. I was completely changed in one day. It was amazing.

I decided to continue practicing Falun Dafa because I personally experienced how powerful it was. In addition, I witnessed from my sister exactly how kind and healthy a Falun Dafa practitioner could be. 

I might be very late in making this realization, but it's better late than never. I've resolved to keep practicing: even if I don't make it to the top in this life, I want to continue in my next. 

Since then, I do the five sets of exercises every morning, and read Zhuan Falun whenever I have time. Two weeks later, my blood pressure returned to normal, my back pain and leg pain were gone, and the oral ulcer that I had for many years was also gone. It feels so wonderful to truly be disease-free.