VIDA or LIFE reflects VITALITY or HEALTH, which I would say, represents the optimal balance or HOMEOSTASIS.

HEALTH or SALUBRITY or SANITY is the state of optimal physical and mental stability or a LIVING ORGANISM. In this spirit, DISEASE is the persistent alteration of mental or physical homeostasis. Unstable organisms are more brittle, thus prone to meet their FINIS or FINAL FATAL FATE which for mortals is DEATH. If "norm, usual or majority" imply NORMAL, then DEATH is the NORM. Death is found at both ends of the CYCLE or SEASONS.

Many ZYGOTES which are fertilized ovarian eggs, oocytes or ovocytes, develop FATAL flaws or BIRTH DEFECTS. The same is true for EMBRYOS. Birth defects is a vast subject studied by TERATOLOGY, a science named after TERATOS for PORTENT.

Most people do not realize that fatal birth defects before birth are so common as to be seen as the "norm". The natural process of spontaneous abortion of defective offspring is by TERATOTHANASIA, a compound word linking TERATO for malformed portents with THANATOS, for death, a personage who induces eternal sleep and whose brother HYPNOS induces mammals to SLIP into reversible SLEEP.

It is natural for proGENItors of flawed gestations to WONDER about CAUSES and their prospects as parents-to-be. Increasingly GENETIC COUNSELING can be of help, because it offers a systematic assessment of environmental and genetic causes of birth defects, the best ways to manage and ameliorate their effects as well as avenues to prevent their occurrence and recurrence.

SLEEP, LIMBO and OBLIVION are intertwined and relate to REST, RESTORATION, HEALING and HEALTH. Recently, scientists have defined LIMBIC regions of the CEREbrum related to sleep, thus LIMBO or OBLIVION.

According to ESCULAPIUS, SALUS, and HYGEIA, SLEEP is essential to life. Abnormal sleep and dreaming interested Sigmund Freud who studied nightMARES and tales about the evil Goddess MARA. In Ukrainian and English MARNO and MAR underscore ideas of MARRED or ill health or ILLNESS.

In many countries, in Eastern Europe in particular, RESTorative REST CUREs are offered by "CURrord" establishments stressing sleep as the key CURATIVE.

An ORGANISM LIVING an ORGANIZED LIFE relies on MEMORY until it is surrendered to MNEMOSINE.

Some poets say that those living "catch their breath" until they "expire" for the last time. When the soul or spirit escapes from the rule of Hypnos and drifts toward Thanatos and Atropa, an appointment is set for a FINAL FATAL encounter with FATE and the FATAE. Apparently, to blunt fear, MORPHEUS administers an AMNESIC, a sort of MORPHINE, to the souls crossing the river STYX. The departed arrive in HADES and enter irreversible OBLIVION or SLEEP in a state of AMNESIA.

MORPHINE, when used by the living, also induces a sort of LIMBO and AMNESIA, thus a withdrawal from reality. For the most part, addicts to morphine fall under Hypnos but those who overdose, may risk an encounter with Thanatos, which may be THANATOPHORIC.

Those who escape teratothanasia and survive infancy enter the FLOW and SEASONS of life ...

SPRING is the VERNAL season, a word implying NATIVE, NATIVITY, blooming, "mating fever" and festivals like CARNAVAL and EASTER. Poets cite a jovial joke by Jove proposing that desire is feminine, which even if true, excludes many birds. Many ANDRO or male birds fall into a "spring song fever", induced by an overflow of ANDROGENS. The music by male birds singing during spring is a symphony for mating.

SUMMER stands for maturation, ripening, and adulthood. The idea in "adult" includes "mature" and the ability to NURTURE another.

The SUMMIT of SUMMER is FOLLowed by FALL or AUTUMN - a period for meditation and for preparation for WINDY WINTER. Perhaps it is the age of REASON.

WINTER has roots in hibernum or hibernate, khaima in chimera, ihima in Himalaya and many others stressing "cold", "sterility", and isolation. Perhaps "cold old age" is often aggravated by social hibernation.

The above tales may be a lie, but their survival for millennia is nurtured by truth and beauty.

It is time to say SALUD or VIVAT for "live in good health". These ancient conVIVIal SALUTtations underscore that health adds VITALITY to life. May you have a MENS SANA in CORPORE SANO.