Making every moment count
View(s):
Homes buried under tonnes of earth…an entire village, visible mere moments before, disappearing in the blink of an eye under a mountain of rubble and freshly unearthed soil…lives lost…livelihoods destroyed…parents desperately seeking their children and children desperately seeking their elders…the list goes on and on and in the midst of all of this, the little children you expect to hear screaming incessantly, have fallen silent…probably cried out and feeling the loss and devastation around them…Scenes of utter disaster…not so far away in some distant land, but here, in our own backyard and in our own country…The shock of it and the sheer loss – of a magnitude one can surely never hope to understand unless it happens to you – has left me feeling hollow and full of despair. Less than a month ago, we were complaining about the endless heat and the relentless sun that was practically scorching our country and her people, and now here we are, desperately trying to find refuge from a storm that never seems to end and is crushing lives, homes and villages in its relentless rampage.
It made me realise a whole lot of things…how superficial we are sometimes about life…worrying about simple issues instead of focusing on the things that really matter…how easily we are distracted by something new and how we often take the things and people around us for granted…that they will always be there, when we want and need them. Above all, it has reawakened my awareness of how fleeting and truly fragile this thing we call life truly is. It has made me realise how utterly important it is to take to heart that age old saying of “making every moment count”.
Before I became a parent, I was an incredibly organised person – in relation to EVERYTHING. After the little ones came along, I think it’s fair to say that life is hyper-organised and utterly chaotic at the same time in relation to different things: I would miss a kids party because I didn’t diarise it straight away, but my child would be in school 15 mins early – every single day. Impossible to explain it any other way except to say that there is organisation of an entirely different sort that seems to influence our entire household since the arrival of our little people. In the midst of all that, it becomes so very easy to put things off for another day (because tomorrow won’t be such a long one); for the next week (surely the children would have recovered from their coughs and colds by then?); for the week after that (I would have met my deadlines at work by then); for next month (my significant other will have met his deadlines at work by then); within the next three months (the children will be on holiday); in six months (I’ll be settled into my new routine by then) and let’s not even get into when the new training and fitness regime is due to start…! The bottom line is that generally, unless something is incredibly urgent, child or work related, it gets put on the back burner – for tomorrow.
I once read that “Procrastination is a mystical land where 99% of all human productivity, motivation and achievement is stored.” More and more people are starting to put off important things for another day in the hope that when the next day comes – it will somehow be the perfect day to get the job done. And the problem is getting worse every day. James Surowiecki writing for the New Yorker, states that according to Piers Steel, a business professor at the University of Calgary, “the percentage of people who admitted to difficulties with procrastination quadrupled between 1978 and 2002. In that light, it’s possible to see procrastination as the quintessential modern problem.”
Witnessing the natural disaster currently ravaging my country, I am reminded once again about the dangers of putting things off…of procrastinating and not doing what needs to be done straight away. I am reminded of the needs of our people, of our sisters, scattered around the country faced with the most unfortunate of circumstances: raking through the rubble with their bare hands and scrambling to find some resemblance of their old life and trying to cling to an existence that is fast disappearing in front of their eyes. I am eminently aware of their immediate need for basic human necessities like food, clothing and shelter. It gave me the jolt I needed to organise and gather the multitude of brand new items of clothing sitting in my closet, waiting for ‘that’ opportunity to make an appearance, which will probably never come. No putting it off for tomorrow, no waiting. The needs and wants of those who have been victims of Mother Nature’s wrath, cannot wait and their needs are in fact extremely urgent.
So I appeal to you ladies/sisters/mothers and daughters – as the heart of any household – please spare 20 minutes today to do something amazing. To reach out at this devastating time when our assistance is more valuable than ever. On this most sacred and blessed day, to gather even just five things – clothes, dry rations, water – whatever they may be and whatever you can – and take them to your nearest shelter or relief centre.
The men, women and children who have lost everything, including their homes and the lives of their nearest and dearest, cannot wait. They have faced the devastating reality and experienced the shattering discovery of how very fragile and fleeting life is.
Ladies: We need to take action right now, without delay and do what we can – we need to make every moment count.
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