Smell the roses while they are in bloom
Hospitals, can be very depressing places and for the past two months, I have been no stranger to those white corridors. When you hear the painful moans and sad cries, your stomach is left churning and something in your mind twitches. You feel like running away but you have to stay and fight. Fight to get back to full health, fight to help a loved one through therapy so that they can walk again after a nasty accident.
And in that moment you find yourself nodding to the phrase, “you never know what you have until it’s gone!”
If you were to read the diary of a social worker, a counsellor or a palliative care nurse, you would hear the heart rending narrations from their experiences with terminally ill patients. Tales of unachieved dreams and how the patients wished they would have spent their lives nurturing relationships with others so as to be surrounded with that love and care in their last days.
Parents who have lost their children or even mothers who have gone through a distressing miscarriage understand the value of cherishing each moment of a life before it is snuffed away without warning.
Life is full of surprises, we are never too sure of what tomorrow beholds. And so we are told to live out our best today like it was the last. While this may make some sense, I believe it is most important to appreciate other people before they are gone and especially those close to us who we are so used to and that we often belittle.
Husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, sons and fathers, the house-help, the watchman, the teacher, the nurse, the secretary, the street cleaner, and so many more interact on a daily basis but just how many of us stop in the midst of busy schedules to say thank you and share a positive word?
Funerals shouldn’t be the only ceremony where we say all those niceties about someone, when we have had a whole lifetime with them. Just like Roses, our lives are fragrant, vibrant and beautiful when in full bloom season, after which withering away and death are inevitable. Thus we must learn to take time off and take in the beauty of the bloom in its peak season.
Tuesday was Mashujaa day, a Kenyan national holiday set aside to mainly remember and celebrate the people who fought for the Country’s freedom during the colonial era. More than 50 years later, we continue to appreciate both the old and new heroes in our society.
Make today and everyday your own Shujaa day by appreciating the people around you who you have been taking for granted yet they truly deserve it. Learn to say Thank you and I appreciate you before it is too late. If you want to learn to say Thank You in any Kenyan language check out this link http://j.mp/1KhKsuL. It’s pretty cool.
