On life, love and everything else…

Every once in a while, life teaches you a lesson. It jerks you out of complacency and tells you to wake up and smell the coffee. I get the feeling that life has been sending out a very similar signal to me lately. For some strange reason, I thought of someone who hasn’t really been on the top of my mind anytime in the recent past. Nandini. The closest I’ve ever had to a sibling, she was cheerful, bubbly and everything else a 20-year old should be.

Over seven years after she passed away in a road accident, I’m suddenly thinking of her again. I don’t really know what triggered the thought, but something made me wish she were still around somewhere. What I wouldn’t give to be able to hear her voice and talk to her right now! All this is a reminder of how transient life really is. Here one day, gone the next. Today was a reminder of everything I’ve never bothered to notice all these years.

Today I learnt that you only live once. If you miss this opportunity, it’s gone forever and you may never get a chance to do this again. I learnt that the one thing money can’t buy is good health. Ruin it, and you may not even live to regret it. I also learnt that it’s easy to make mistakes but very difficult to correct those mistakes and ensure they don’t recur. I learnt that if you can only ever prioritize one thing in life, it should probably be your body and its well being.

Maybe, just maybe life gives you those little shocks and disappointments only to warn you that your time is running out. Maybe the Greeks we’re right all along. Carpe diem. Seize the day, because it’s all you have.