Life, Death, and the in between…

You know how you think deep thoughts, just from witnessing a simple, everyday life scenario? Well, it happened to me today. So my cousin had a baby and I went down to see her/ babysit. (those that know me, know my “slight” obsession with babies) anyway I went to see her and I have been having the time of my life babysitting, because there’s something about babies that makes all my worries go away. My pretty baby girl has been a perfect palate cleanser from all of life’s storms.

Now, her aunt’s aged mother also happens to be around and for some reasons, it’s been fascinating being in the same house with a new born and a very old woman. My baby cousin is helpless and completely dependent on her mother, requires constant care and affection, and literally cannot help herself, and coincidentally so is Mama.  I was in the living room with Mama as she sat facing the balcony and a ray of light hit her  across her face and it dawned on me how beautiful she must have been in her youth, I thought the same again when she got all dressed up in her skirt and jacket for our trip to the town and then it hit me; one day, this will be me! My parents are already heading down that road  and even though God blessed my mother with luscious skin and good health, some day she will be old and frail and will depend on me to take complete care of her the way she did for me when I was a helpless infant. This must be the circle of life that Mufasa kept telling Simba about in the Lion King…

As I sat on that chair absorbing the thought of my mother becoming old and grey, another thought hit me; it’ll happen to me too. All my great grandparents and grandparents have gone to be with the Lord, My father is in his mid sixties and my mum is following suit, and one day in their ripe old age by the grace of God, they’ll go to be with the Lord too. By the time that happens I will probably be in my fifties or early sixties, saying goodbye to my parents and then my own kids will start making arrangements for my own old age, their kids will do the same for them and it will go on and on and on.

I will admit that I was quite sober and so so quiet after these thoughts were done running through my head and as I went to the bathroom to wash my face, I looked at the mirror and again it occurred to me that one day my firm skin will be wrinkled and tired, deep lines will be etched on my face, my back will be stooped and who knows how many teeth I will have left?

Time is ticking away, every second and minute that passes is time we will never get back. Every birthday is one step closer to the grave! what are you doing with the precious time that God has so graciously given to you? Don’t wait till you are fragile and old and grey, Live now! And if your parents are still alive, love them and honor them and spend as much time as you can with them so that in their twilight years, when all they can do is sit and stare, they will have memories to keep them going. As soon as I post this, I am going to call my parents and have a really long conversation with them, you should do the same.

Life, and death, and everything in between is made up of memories and time which is ever so fleeting, stop and smell the flowers…

“Love your parents, we are so busy growing up, we also forget that they are growing old”–Anonymous

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”- Benjamin Franklin