My 7 year old often asks me," Ma , tumi morbe na to?"( Promise you'll never die and leave me alone). I usually try to reassure her by telling her that I'll be there for her as long as she needs me..pointing out that everything around us is subject to death and decay. I think of my own parents- how lucky I am to still have them in my life, ageing, weaker perhaps , but still there to provide security and unconditional love.
I think of those who are not there anymore. It is difficult to accept that some of my near ones are now alive only in memories. I see a well loved name in my list of contacts and realise that never again will a call get through to her. Somehow I find it difficult to delete the name and sever the last tenuous connection.
I remember a time when all those who have gone, were around to fill my days with laughter and tears.A time when I thought my father was the strongest man ever; that he could protect us from any troubles life threw our way. Today, I see him as a strong and gentle man who, like many others, won some battles and lost some.
Will it be the same for my daughter, I wonder? Will life teach her to see me as I really am, a human being with frailties and strengths and not the sun her life revolves around? It will surely, for our mortality brings with it the understanding that the old must go to make place for the new.
As the Bard puts it: 'All that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.'
Hold that thought!
I think of those who are not there anymore. It is difficult to accept that some of my near ones are now alive only in memories. I see a well loved name in my list of contacts and realise that never again will a call get through to her. Somehow I find it difficult to delete the name and sever the last tenuous connection.
I remember a time when all those who have gone, were around to fill my days with laughter and tears.A time when I thought my father was the strongest man ever; that he could protect us from any troubles life threw our way. Today, I see him as a strong and gentle man who, like many others, won some battles and lost some.
Will it be the same for my daughter, I wonder? Will life teach her to see me as I really am, a human being with frailties and strengths and not the sun her life revolves around? It will surely, for our mortality brings with it the understanding that the old must go to make place for the new.
As the Bard puts it: 'All that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.'
Hold that thought!
