In life we meet so many people, some stay for a day, some for a year and others stay for a lifetime. Many of the people you will meet will have no impact on your life whatsoever - the guy that served you at a restaurant, the girl that held the door open for you at a store - they will remain faceless and nameless in your journey of life, but others will leave a sign saying 'I was here'.
Maybe it is the volume of people we meet that allows us to either believe they will always be there or that they are replaceable but whatever the reason, we are all guilty of taking those around us for granted. The one thing everyone seems to forget is that you may meet another person like them but never another person to be them.
I have recently lost two friends. They died in very different ways but the result was the same - shock, pain, sadness. The thing is, in my day to day life they had no impact, we didn't talk every day or see each other weekly but it doesn't make the loss any easier. As the news started sinking in I started having flashbacks of our times together and then a new feeling cropped up - regret. I regret not making contact with them more often or arranging to meet up somewhere as we always said we would. The truth is I took them for granted, I figured that since our friendship was already solidified and we hadn't fallen out there would always be time for us to do those things later. How wrong was I?
Death is an inevitable part of life but unless we are sick we naturally assume we have all the time in the world to do things and that death won't hit us till old age. The thing we forget is life, not death, is the rarest of the two. There are so many ways in which a person could die yet only one way to come to life and even once born, survival is a struggle and staying alive is a gift. We need to remember that time waits for no man and death doesn't make an appointment with you so live each day like it's your last, let those you care about know how important they are to you and keep in contact with the rest even if it's only via a social networking site. Life is fragile and tomorrow is never promised.
Having said all that, I want to pay tribute to two people who left their mark in my life and I pray that both their souls rest in perfect peace. Death is harder on those who live and I pray that their families and friends are given the strength to get through these very difficult times. I hope we will meet again one sweet day Sadiq and Reubini xxx
First Published: Jun 9, 2011