Time

Isn't it so often that we tell ourselves or the others the following?

"I won't be able to make it on time today"
"We'll have to meet another time"
"I don't have time for this, that, etc etc"

When time comes pressing - face to face with you - in the form of someone's demise, you finally have the time - albeit to grief over how much you could have done or told someone and to grapple with the "if only-s"?

Such is the brevity / fragility of life - that i have heard of 2 funerals (of my close friends' relatives) over the past month. I had attended one of them actually - the first in my circle of friends. The other - i just heard of only an hour ago - my dear ff's grandpa, whom i have met a number of times during the past year.His grandparents reside in Malaysia - about 2-3 hours' drive from here so i may not be able to pay him my last respects.

Time brings along happier gifts as well - i have also just heard of 2 baby gals turning a month's old recently. They bring to mind hope for the future, and hope for unfulfilled dreams of this generation perhaps.

I'm thankful that i haven't had any major confrontations with time, but i know that i'll have to one day - as i grow older, so do my folks and loved ones. Each demise i know of only reminds me of the urgency - to spend enough time with this and that friend and my family - not just in quantity but in quality as well. It's hard to split ourselves into pieces to be there for every possible someone (sometimes across the globe from us) at every possible time, but it may just take a simple sms or email - which i know i haven't done enough of.

I can only hope that i'll never have to face someone's demise with regret. In the meantime, i'll have to work harder and race against time...