Goodbye Old Friend

A friend and a colleague passed away over the weekend.  Everyone starts to say good things about him. Words that should have been spoken while he was still around are not uttered.  Deeds that should have been done are not taken care of.

Then there is the remorse, the guilt, the anguish.  The missed moments in life.

Ronan Keating's "If Tomorrow Never Comes" should be a reminder for all of us.  And if that still doesn't work, maybe we should consider the song "Open Casket" from the band Death from their Leprosy album. We may not be able hear the words in the song, we could listen to the lyrics with our heart:

Approach the image filled with fear

As the image grows so clear

Future now takes full control

The one whose past you now behold

Touch - the flesh it is so cold

Turn away - you now have been told

Never to return, memories will last

In the future, you'll think about the past

Never to forget, what you have seen

People come to pay respect

Taking pictures of the dead

That is what life comes to be

Once they lived, now they're deceased

Death is oh so strange

The past no one can change

What you can't predict

Is how long you'll exist

Open casket - open casket

Life will never be the same

Death can never be explained

It's their time to go beyond

Empty feeling when they're gone

Never to return, memories will last

In the future, you'll think about the past

Never to forget, what you have seen

What cannot be real you now believe

Goodbye old friend.

Looking Back

Met up with a familiar face from school days when my former teacher, an old friend, called me up.  It's been a while since we met and we sat for half an hour catching up with a common past - our "hometown" so to speak.

Although half a generation separates us, our parents shared the same roots so we spent that short time reminiscing what our childhoods were like.

And so it seems, that despite being the younger one, I had the opportunity to do some of the things that she wanted to do (and never had the chance), I had a richer experience as a youth.

Sometimes we lament too much at what we do not have.  If we would just pause for a moment, we might realise how much of other things we have that others covet.




Sunset at the Old Homestead
(as I would call my grandparents' home).