Life Death And Everything In between
1 minute read
Time is a quiet thief. It does not ask for permission, nor does it announce its arrival. It simply moves, steady and unshaken, while we go about our days believing we have forever.
Then, one day, we stand in a dimly lit room, watching someone we love take shallow breaths, their time slipping away like sand through our fingers. And in that moment, we realize forever was never promised..
I sat by my grandfather’s side, his body frail, his voice barely above a whisper. The same hands that once built, carried, and held now trembled with the weight of time. His presence, once so strong and unwavering, was fading before my eyes. I wanted to stop it. I wanted to press pause, to capture him as he was before time had its way. But time does not pause for anyone.
We live as though our families will be here forever. As children, we see our parents as invincible, our grandparents as permanent fixtures in our world. Then, without warning, we notice the graying hair, the slowing steps, the tired eyes. We recognize that the people who raised us, who shaped us, are not immune to the passage of time. And yet, we let days slip by, caught up in the noise of life, thinking there will always be another conversation, another visit, another moment to say what we’ve left unsaid.
But time does not wait. It does not remind us to cherish the laughter around the dinner table, the stories told in the quiet of the evening, the warmth of a hug that lingers just a little longer. It does not tell us when the last goodbye will come. We only realize its importance when the moment has already passed.
As I sat there, watching my grandfather exist in the fragile space between life and death, I understood that life is not measured in years but in moments. It is the crazy things he said, the way he told stories of his youth, the way he laughed. And so, I held his hand a little tighter, spoke a little softer, and let the weight of time remind me that love, in the end, is the only thing that defies it.
We cannot stop time. But we can choose to live differently. We can choose to be present, to love deeply, to hold on to the moments that matter before they slip away. Because one day, we will all find ourselves in that dimly lit room, either saying goodbye or being the one who is leaving. And in that moment, I hope we will have lived in a way that leaves no room for regret. Only love, only gratitude, only the echoes of a life well cherished.