Notes On Life and Death
Death has always been something so distant to me. As a teacher in Manila, I think I’ve condoled with about five bereaved families of students or fellow teachers who have lost someone they love. Somehow, saying “My deepest condolences,” “I’m sorry for your loss,” or “I sympathize” seemed easier then. I remember the mother of one of our students who lost her young son and husband in the same year and deeply saddened by her fate, we could only utter amongst ourselves: “Such loss. I wonder how she’d going to cope with it?”
But when I lost my dad last year, death became so concrete, so real. It does happen and it will happen to everyone. Some people just get there first. Losing someone so dear and so near to me made me realize that life is just as concrete as well. Whereas death is something that we still have to experience, life is already here- ours for the taking. Life is meant to be lived fully and purposefully. How we can accomplish that is entirely our choice. Unlike death that catches us unawares, life is an everyday gift that is ours for the living. We must embrace the struggles and surprises as well as the lessons that it gives us everyday.
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