Life is but a vapour

I remember in high school, those who were in boarding school will remember that, going to church was not an option, but it was one of the rules... so there was this old Pastor who used to preach, after his sermons he would do the altar call, so each time he would sing " Umuntu unjengembali eqhakaza namhla, ngakusasa isibune nya" which is literally translated as " A man is like a flower, that blossoms in a day and dies the following day" ..This is a funeral song, but it depends in which context you want to interpret it. It was meant to make us realize the importance of accepting Christ on that particular day because no one is promised tomorrow.

So today  I couldn't stop thinking that if I had sang the song with an understanding,  and taken it seriously that " life is but a vapour", what would I have done differently. Would I have chosen commercial subjects knowing very well that I'm not good with numbers? would I have done a course that was going to afford me a position to get a better job,  or would I taken decisions based on the important things in life like, following my first love which is Arts, lived each day as a special gift to share with those in my life while doing what I love the most.

Believe me I know I'm not the only one in that bus, its one bus which is over booked, but the blessing is that, each day we are given another chance to disembark the bus. It will not be easy I will not lie to you, but it will surely lead you to a place of peace and real fulfillment. I think it is a blessing to live a short well lived life, than living a long life of pain and struggle.

 We spend time fighting with people we love dearly, sometimes we want them to beg us, we want to prove a point that its them who need us than we do. Life has literally taught me that it is real like fog in the morning grass, when the sun appear it disappears. When I lost the most amazing people in my life, part of me wanted to take their positions, I wanted to be the one who is dead, meaning I would be dead twice (lol), I couldn't bear the pain, of living my life without them. The truth was, they had lived their lives, they had walked their journeys and they had achieved those dreams that God has planned for them to achieve.... but me, there is so much out there that I still need to do, hence I am still breathing, there is still a child who go to bed hungry that I must feed, there is that person who wants to take his or her life because they have been diagnosed with a terminal illness that I must tell that God is the only one who terminates a person's life, it can never be over until He has say so...

It is a fact that we can not run away from, that  " Life is like a vapour", but we are all afforded an opportunity to do something with it... Politicians can propose the policies and laws we live by, but the real buck stop with us. We are the real agents of change, in our small corners, in our homes, in our lives, they say the best leaders are those who has perfected the art of self discipline... So this might not make sense in some reading this, but one day when you feel at your lowest point and giving up appears to be the solution, just remember the fact that " In a battlefield when you stop fighting you DIE, literally"

With Love
awami