Life is short. In a short space of 3 months, I've had two deaths in my extended family. My youngest uncle from my father's side passed away suddenly of liver cancer. In my mother's side, my 4th aunty died of stage 4 breast cancer. I have a former class mate where we were formerly quite close struggling with colon cancer. I also have a co-worker who's father may be diagnosed with colon cancer.
Death surrounds me constantly. Or maybe I'm now more aware of it now that I'm older. Often I wonder when my turn will come. Will I die suddenly while exercising, or will I die an agonising death after a long illness. Will I live to see my future children grow up and have children of their own. How does it feel like to be the person who's struggling.
Death puts things into perspective. It tells me that at the end of it all, we die and leave behind memories with all that bumped into us in this short journey. All our grudges, our money, our earthly possessions, are left behind. We can't take a single cent with us to the grave. How we respond to this is important. We can choose to politick in the office and stab one another in life. We can choose to make lots of friends for political reasons and then form cronies. We can choose to achieve something in life, to right the wrongs, to install justice and to make an organisation better. We choose the legacy that we leave behind.
I choose to leave behind a legacy. I am not the most patient of persons. I may not be the joker that will lift everybody's moods (although I try). But I aim to do what's right and persuade others to do the same. A lot of things don't matter in life; our anger, our jealousy, our hurts, just comes back to hurt us more. The solution is to forgive others as much as we can, and to be patient and love others more. It is not easy, because emotions often gets in the way. But I will try to be.
There are times when I try to communicate with people whom I need to work with constantly. But whether by deliberation or by sheer nonchalance, I am ignored. I will then escalate this to people who are involved in order to illicit a response. I act with urgency in most things I do, especially when I think they are important.
The most difficult people to deal with are those that don't wish to communicate with you honestly. They just say "ok" and then go do another thing. Or they just ignore you. Although in front of you, they say that they are still "one family", they will not respond to any email or sms. It is difficult to deal with such people because they are not frank... they will not come clean...
In any case, life is too short to be bothered by people and work. My cute little niece is here for 10 days and it's an important event in my life; to see her grow up. Having a kid in the house puts things into perspective...
Have a great weekend everyone... reflect about what we do everyday... it may make us become better persons...
