Life Is Too Short

Last week, I logged on to my Facebook page to find a peculiar message in my friend feed. It was by someone I didn't have on my friend list, but who had tagged a friend of mine. That is the only reason I know.....

My friend had died. The message was asking for any memories of him to be written and sent in so that a book of memories could be compiled for his three young boys. I was shocked. Just completely shocked. I had only been speaking to my friend maybe two weeks before.... we'd had a long conversation about life, children, work, and other things. I could not comprehend that he was just gone. Just like that. He was just 33, and it was an epileptic seizure he did not survive.

As I was grieving, my nephew suddenly took a turn for the worse. He had been in hospital for around 2 months, basically in limbo, fighting to live. Making progress, then getting worse again. The night before my friends funeral, I got a call. Come in to the hospital... it doesn't look good. I was lucky to make it in there at all. I arrived to find the rest of my family already present. About 20 minutes after I got in, he died peacefully in his mother's arms. The cheeky little man slipped away quietly while nurses were trying to take his footprint and handprint. He was 2 years and 8 months old. Barely a toddler.

My big girls with their precious cousin, only a week or two before he went.

If you think things have been bad for me, please take a moment to think of my little sister. This was her second child. Now she has none. None here anyway. Ohhh... to see such grief is unbearable. I can't believe this is happening again. We still haven't buried him yet. His funeral will be this Friday.

The day he died, later on in the afternoon, I went to my friend's funeral anyway. I needed to say goodbye. I'm still kind of shocked that he's gone. So very unexpected. This week has been a double whammy, and if anything, it has just reminded me so clearly that life is too short. We blink, and are gone. Life here is a vapour.... blown away in a moment. The next heartbeat could be the last. And it's just not worth hanging on to the things that don't count.

Make things right with the people you love - people who matter. Forget about past hurts, and forgive. Even if you have every right to be angry (and many of us do!)... for eternity's sake, let it go. If you have wronged someone, make it right. Even if you never speak to them again after that, make it right and move on. Life is way to short, and you never know which breath might be your last. Are you ready?

xx