Take the time

My post about my father elicited a small response. Among the most touching was from my neighbor at the Dragon Guest House in Kathmandu and a traveling companion on the first leg of my visit to India last December.

Now back in Europe, she wrote to share the news of her father's death, a rather sudden end that left her with no opportunity to ask a last question, to say farewell, to make an offering of thanks. She wrote:

"Day by day I start to realise that he's gone and that he won't come back anymore. This fact, which can't be changed, is like a slap in my face. I've always knew that we all must leave this world sometime, but now it's become very very real."

In case any of us needed it, here is a reminder that life is indeed fragile and fleeting. Take a moment to think that today may be the last time to hear the birds sing, to feel the sun on your skin, to eat a delicious meal, to talk with a friend, to hold a loved one. Be in the moment. Savor the experience.

There may never be another.

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