Revisiting the lessons i learned from my sister’s death

Two years ago, i wrote a blog post for a platform called Thinkinary, about the lessons I learned from my sisters dead. I didn’t think I will go back to reading that post again but the tragic death of my friend made me revisit the post. To give a little backstory, my friend was tragically killed by a car accident on her way back from church a couple of weeks ago. It happened so suddenly that when her sister called me to tell me, I thought it was a prank. I told myself, this can’t be true. To be honest, I felt(still do) more pain than when my sister passed on. For my sister, we knew she was sick and in so much pain. For my friend, it was all too sudden, so random.

Rereading the post, i discovered, the lessons i learned from my sister’s passing were still the once i learned again from my friend’s death. I had quickly forgotten some of these lessons. i had ignored some, and discarded some. Most of these lessons are things we all know we have to do but we don’t always do. Like me, i hope you are reminded of what truly matters in the end. Here are the lessons i learned;

Tomorrow is not guaranteed.

It does not matter where you are in the world, there is no guarantee that you will see tomorrow. Live your life to the fullest today and live it daily.

You do not have time.

Time we something we all think we have enough of. Spoiler alert: Time is not your friend. Every single breath you take is a breath closer to your last. STOP. Read that again. We all have a death appointment, it’s not what we all want to think about. heck, i don’t like thinking about it. but that is a fact about life, you are going to die. I am going to die. It’s the truth. It is coming, but i want to die empty, having lived to my fullest potential, and having loved fully.

The perfect time is now.

The perfect time to start living is now, to start following your dreams is now, the perfect time to forgive that friend that hurt you years ago is, now. The perfect time to tell your parents and friends that you love them is now and most importantly the perfect time to turn to God is now. Right now, not tomorrow, not when you feel like it. Take control of your life.

Be an intentional Christian.

Take your spiritual life seriously, strive to know God, and learned from his word. Read the Bible, it is the most inspirational book that has ever existed. Do an examination of conscience once a while.  Always be prepared. Pray

Take care of yourself and others.

Take a break and smell the flowers as you go through life, go for a walk, or go on a retreat. Take care of your body, and have a medical checkup once a while. Love yourself and be present for others.

Life is unfair and messy.

To think that life is fair is a mistake you should never make. Life is messy and unfair. Everyone you will ever meet is fighting a hard battle. what hard battle are you fighting? But, life is also good, focusing on the mess is unhealthy. There is good in this world and we are called to be part of that good. To be the reason why someone else has hope in this what seems like a hopeless world.

I hope that at least one of these lessons resonated with your spirit in one way or another.! What are some of the lessons you learned from losing a loved one? Please share in the comment section.