On the importance of living

A lot of us are saddened by the tragedy over in Japan. It's something we can't wrap our minds around; thousands of lives suddenly snatched, gone without warning, in what seems like a fucked up, random fashion. For those of us not directly connected with anyone from there, it may seem a bit distant to us. We feel compassion and are horrified, but on some levels perhaps we just don't get it. Maybe we can't. Perhaps that's okay.


I lost a friend of mine yesterday; he went to bed and never woke up last morning. He wasn't much older than me--in his 40s at most--and for reference I'll be thirty-three next month. His birthday would've been tomorrow. Too damned young, too sudden, so random...I'm in shock. I suspect I'll be in shock for a long time. He was a nice guy, one of those people whom everyone knew and liked. Just a genuinely great guy, quick with a smile. It's yet another loss I can't wrap my head around, but in a different way than my inability to process what's going on in Japan.


The only way I can really wrap my head around the Japan thing in a way which brings it down to earth is to try and picture thousands more like my friend, their lives abruptly cut short by a vicious act of nature. And then I get it--it's that people thing. People living out their lives day to day, and catastrophe hits. I'd love to be able to leave some uplifting, inspiring commentary to somehow tone down the impact of what I'm saying here, but I really can't. There's nothing cheery or inspiring about sudden, random death which snatches away a life in progress, leaving a person never to return. 


All I can really say is this: live your life in a way which reduces regret to either little or nothing. Don't spend so much time caught up in bullshit that you forget the people around you. Don't expect people to always be there; they could be gone tomorrow through no fault or intervention of any one's. You can't picture this now, just like you couldn't have envisioned a quake and tsunami ripping up Japan, or me imagining someone around my age dying of a heart attack, full of life at a club one day and gone the next. But you don't need to be able to comprehend such things in order to appreciate those around you.


Live for the now, don't just breeze through it. It's precious, and on a whim it can be gone.






Love & Magic,
Adrianne
www.adriannebrennan.com