This season of light — the secular Christmas period celebrated across the globe — invites us to pause, breathe, and reflect on how we meet the responsibilities and rhythms of our lives. Here at My28Days, where readiness begins with the quality of our presence, I find myself returning to an unexpected companion on this journey: Sisyphus.
Traditionally, Sisyphus is the symbol of endless struggle — condemned to roll a rock up a hill forever. But viewed through the lens of what I’ve learned living in Lampang, Thailand, and through the gentle clarity of Ajarn Sak, Sisyphus becomes something different.
Not a figure of suffering.
But the bearer of Timeless Truth.
A truth that now radiates outward from the Ajarn Sak Museum at the Wok like a lantern carried into the World.
The Timeless Truth: Reality Isn’t Perfect — But Our Response Can Be
Every life has a rock to push.
Responsibilities that repeat, challenges that return, health needs that require ongoing attention.
The wisdom I’ve learned in Lampang — and the wisdom that fuels Sabai Artist® and Empathy Thinking® — is this:
We do not strive to make our reality perfect.
We strive to make our response to reality perfect.
This shift changes everything.
It softens the breath.
Steadies the mind.
Opens the heart.
And transforms effort into something almost luminous.
That is what the Sabai Artist® persona teaches:
That we can learn to carry ourselves with such ease and warmth that others feel safe simply by being near us.
Not through performance, but through presence.
Not through force, but through regulated, empathetic awareness rooted in modern neuroscience. And suddenly, the hill no longer feels as steep.
Sisyphus in Lampang: A New Story for a Global Audience
When I imagine Sisyphus now, I don’t see a man trapped by fate. I see a person who has discovered the Sabai Artist® way:
- He returns to the base of the hill with calm intention.
- He pushes the rock with a gentle, steady posture.
- He lights his way with the lantern of inner clarity.
- He smiles, not because the task has changed, but because he has.
His story no longer feels tragic.
It becomes a universal teaching — one that belongs just as much to Lampang as to ancient Greece.
This teaching is where Camus softly meets Eastern wisdom:
Freedom comes not from changing the World, but from changing the relationship we have with the World.
Sisyphus becomes a symbol of readiness —
not a frantic effort,
not exhaustion.
But ease in the midst of effort.
A Lampang Gift to the World
As I’ve walked through the Ajarn Sak Museum, watched the lanterns glow in the evening air, and felt the warmth of Lampang’s gentle rhythm, I’ve realized something:
Lampang has given Sisyphus a new home.
And from here, we share his message globally.
With Sabai Artist® as the human expression
and Empathy Thinking® as the scientific foundation,
this message becomes a gift of the season:
- You can be steady even when life is heavy.
- You can be soft even when life is hard.
- You can be at ease even when the hill is steep.
- You can push your rock in the light.
These insights are what the season of light is all about — not the elimination of darkness, but the return of illumination, warmth, kindness, and hope.
A Wish for Your 28 Days
As you move through your cycle, your challenges, your responsibilities — your own hill — I offer you this Lampang-inspired wish:
May you meet your rock with ease.
May you steady your breath.
May your awareness be your lantern.
May your response be your source of freedom.
Because the rock may still be there.
But now, you do not push it alone —
You push it with the light of Timeless Truth,
carried from a small museum in Lampang to every corner of the World where someone seeks ease amid effort.
Take care and be well,
Dr. Lawrence M. Nelson, MD, MBA
Director, My 28 Days® Initiative
President, Mary Elizabeth Conover Foundation, Inc.
Sabai Artist® and Empathy Thinking® are registered trademarks of the Mary Elizabeth Conover Foundation. All rights reserved.
HEALTHCARE RE-IMAGINED
