As a child, and with all your innocence, not even in a wildest of dreams, your thoughts cross a path of losing someone not only close but also dear to you. You take it for granted that they will always be there. You carelessly go on as forever truly only applies to you. Alternatively, even when the thought may pop in, you simply brush it off into an indefinite future.
You hear and see others losing their loved ones and you convince yourself that you understand and feel their pain. You hear people say it is just like that” and you feel they are being heartless. You think they should be nicer and wiser to know what to say.
As much as you feel you understand them and feel their pain though, you somewhat also feel helpless. You feel helpless as you are not sure exactly what to say or you may have an idea but how to say it is beyond your imagination. So, you look for hints from the grieving. You listen to what they say and try to gather your comments around it. But still, it feels as if you have been presented with a brain surgery assignment.
Then it hits you, for a moment, you try to digest and fathom the fact of what you just heard. A five second moment of silence feels like it has been an hour of disbelief. You feel like it has sunk in and it’s ok, but you may have just concluded too early. Because every time you would receive, a call is like an emotional restart.
Enough of the drama, the truth is that, as the scripture says, no one knows the day nor the hour.
Every loss of a loved one should be a reminder. A reminder to appreciate and cherish every single moment of life spent with or without. It should also be a reminder that every moment spent in anger or resentment could become a moment lost. Not that negative emotions should not be expressed but that they should be expressed in such a manner that does not crowd and override the beautiful memories we should also share for the time we have together.
Eventually, nature works in its own terms. A man could try to experiment and manipulate even weather events. But one thing a man cannot go against is the will of nature. Yet, a man has opportunities at every turn to learn to bow to nature’s will though often caught up in creating a personal legacy at the expense of his people.
One man has taught me a lesson I shall never forget, a lesson of sacrifice and selflessness. In my deep introspection, I do not even think that he was intentional, but it must have been his nature.
You see, in the world of specialization, we are often advised to choose one thing and dedicate our whole life to it, but this man has proven otherwise. To me, and hopefully, to many, he is an example of what it means to be a gift to the world.
By this time, you may be wondering who I am talking about. I am talking about my father – a father, a warrior. A man with a cool, calm, and collected demeanour – something I will forever envy about him. I cannot deny that I am mourning, for that is nature’s way of letting go in these three dimensions. I celebrate a life lived to the fullest. Celebrating a legacy of not only him but of every father that has lived to highest standards.
By Karlos The Great
E-mail: karlsimbumusic@gmail.com
OSHIMWENYO is published every Friday in the New Era newspaper with contributions from Karlos Naimwhaka