Recently someone who was instrumental in helping me be where I am in this journey, passed away. This was a close reminder of how even my own physical existence is also going to come to an end one day.

Before the pandemic, death was a far away concept for many of us. Other people may die but somehow it will never happen to us. Many people even in their seventies and older are also in this illusion that they will keep on living forever. This pandemic is teaching us that we are all a fair game for death whether we are young or old. The reality is hitting home as death stares us in the face.

You may be thinking this is a morbid topic and also a little scary. Who doesn’t want to keep on living? Why not talk about life rather than death? But here’s a paradox my friend: the more aware you are of death the more full of life you will become. How? Because death will become a reality for you and not an illusion, you will want to live every second of this life to the fullest. You will not want to waste one moment of your precious life! Think about it; the stuff you have been putting away for tomorrow will now be done today as who knows if there will be a tomorrow. The grudges and hate that are in your heart can be let go off and be forgiven because you never know the other person or even yourself will see tomorrow. Instead of holding on to your wealth and other physical accumulations you would be more generous to people who are less fortunate than you.

It all comes down to: if you were to leave this earth tomorrow how would you want people and loved ones to remember you? What will be your legacy? Do you want to be remembered as a mean person who never shared any of his time, knowledge and wealth? Or do you want to be remembered as a person who was kind with a heart of gold? What would you choose? After all, when we leave this earth we cannot take any of our belongings.

I remember Maya Angelou’s quote:

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

We are travelers on this earth. The least we can do is to make sure that we are inspirations for each other and we leave this earth a better place than when we found it.

 As for this person, I know that the flame that he has helped to light in my life will always be alive even after his death. I just sincerely hope that I can also be of some service to my fellow travelers so that the torch I am carrying will keep on burning.