When Life Gives Way
by Gina Yap in Mind+Body+Spirit | 1 Comment | Add your comment

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This week has been a rather busy time for me as I catch up with backlogs at work. And there are times when I hardly have more than three hours sleep a day. That’s the way life turns out to be for some of us. We get too busy with our passion and work, we neglect life and forget that it’s LIFE that has full control of us. With just a puff, God breathed life into our soul. Just the same way, our life can give way in just a wink of eye.

I woke up this morning and was reminded of how fragile life is: A woman in her early forties lost her husband to sudden death late last night while I was slaving away in front of my computer. His blood pressure suddenly dropped low and his life gave way – just like that. No chance to really say goodbye or leave a will, not even see his children for the last time for they thought he just needed help from the hospital, nor even treasure to support the family for days to come. In just a wink, life gave way and now the widow has four young children to parent all on her own.

It’s a sad news. Or the way everyone around me keeps saying today, it’s a sad sad shocking news. I watch them crumble into coping mechanism mode – getting themselves busy to cope rather than face their lost in the eye. Naturally people wonder if she can cope with four young children, if she could find a job and survive, if she can still afford life, what would she do next, how can they help – but in the midst of helping one to cope from the lost of a loved one, everyone overlooks the most important message life has sent us: Life has the power to work its way as and when it demands.

We take life for granted. All of us. All the time. Because waking up each morning to see the sun beaming brightly at us has been a natural thing to do. Because tomorrow always seems to be there no matter how rough today has been. Because we cannot imagine never waking up when we lay down to sleep at night.

Life has one call upon us. Just one. But we have a lifetime to wait for that one call – where our life would give way and we would pass on. Let us not forget this as we go on with our daily life.

Let us appreciate the power that life has over us and use it to our advantage. Let every one of us be ready when life gives way.

ABOUT THE COLUMNIST

Gina Yap Lai Yoong is a full time freelancer focusing on writing and designing communication strategies for branding & marketing campaigns for various corporate clients in the country. While many wouldn’t choose to dive into the challenges and uncertainties of full time freelancing, she has decided to travel this path so that she could spend more time doing the things she love – which includes helping others to discover the full potential in them through inspiration and motivation. Her debut Malay novel is out at the market in 2010. She resides at Cybermate's Dungeon.

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