Monday 15 October 2007

Let us be reminded...

One of my friend’s mom was admitted to hospital last Friday, she fainted. Her kidneys failed and the surgery to remove some puss from her kidneys was not successful. She stabilised on Saturday and the next surgery to remove the pus still present in her kidneys was scheduled to be performed tomorrow.

But all is not meant to be, she passed away yesterday.

One of my mentors since my early school days who is going to be the worship leader during my wedding ceremony was admitted into hospital too on Friday. The medical staff found a stone in his kidney and due to some other complications, the doctor took a sample of his tissue for a biopsy to rule out the possibility of cancer and the result will be out this coming Saturday.

Perhaps I have reached an age where such things are part and parcel of life; but one thing for sure, I am reminded again of how fragile life is. I am reminded again of the pain when I lost my mom. I am also being brought back to earth to once again catch a glimpse on life’s reality.

Amidst our euphoria of celebrating the beauty of life, let us not take it for granted… let us know our limitations… let us realise what are the important things… let us find time to do things that truly enrich us and most important of all… let us cherish those whom we love while we are still walking this path on earth with them.

54 comments:

Observer said...

Life....

Helen said...

When somebody told me so and so had stroke at the age of 37, I felt astounded.

In my younger years, 37 is a long way off. Now, that person is even younger than me. Makes you think about what you're doing for yourself healthwise eh? :-)

_butt said...

I still couldn't get used to it (hearing bad news about our loved ones and friends). I guess we never will.

LX said...

So sorry to hear about your friend's mom. Indeed, life is fragile. Besides the baby boom I get from the blogosphere, so far within one week, I have heard about 3 passing aways. It's not easy to accept when someone is gone. I still miss my grandmother so much.

Anonymous said...

zewt, this confirms it. u have joined our club..perhaps it is yr impending marriage or perhaps it is age. after marriage n kids, u will look at things a little like wat u r seeing now but it will progressively get slanted to a certain angle.

i have lost so many loved ones I do not want to think about it any more. Just praise God for each new day and for the renewal through my son

Y.E@eevet said...

La Vie en rose... Life is like a rose.To harvest it, our fingers might have to be pricked by the thorns, and bleed , feel the pain. However, we'll be healed. Some blossom, some wither.But without all these pain, we might not be able to fully appreciate the beauty in it.

Anonymous said...

I've seen many people pass away too this year alone.All of them are people who play a part in my life.

sigh..

Kiersten said...

Life is short. Very, very short. So enjoy it to the fullest.

choulyin.tan said...

yea...such is the pain of having lost a loved one..it astounds to think that life is not only a bed of roses, it also comes with thorns

Angie Tan said...

So sorry to hear about the news.

*Sigh*... Sometimes when we get news like this, it reminds us that life is so so short. Let's appreciate what we have and do the best with what we got.

Anonymous said...

live our life to the fullest each and everyday. like people said, life is like a neverending journey and it still have so many bents along the way. we might not know what's on the other side or what's coming or what's in front but what we can do now in the present is to always be careful in what we do and .. ya lah, live life to the fullest. :)

My Rantings said...

Life is short & fragile. We just have to thankful & make the most of it. :)

NYPT said...

sorry to hear about your friend's mum.

but i think you meant PUS instead of PUSS...

i didnt mean to be rude but some readers might take it the wrong way.

Purple~MushRooM said...

Life is indeed fragile. I am also very worried of my parents. I can only pray and wish for their good health.

Ehon said...

reminders. are we lucky or are we not for having these reminders?

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

let us be reminded to live life to the fullest..and do what you truly want to do as well..

zorro said...

I offered myself as a test subject for a new High Blood Pressure drug. A few months into this I developed an intermittent dry cough. It lasted for three months. An X-ray was ordered and something suspicious appeared on the lungs. A CT Scan was recommended. Shit,if it was the Big C, I was going to fight it and choke the life out of it. I am not ready to go...I want to see my Malaysian grandkids, besides the 3 grandsons in the Bahamas, but they are Bahamian. I told nobody about this except the Alliedmester, Tony Yew. Last Tuesday I was called to the UH, prepared for the worst. Dr. Liew told me...everything clear...the shadow was an old lung injury when I contacted TB in Akron, Ohio, when I did some welfare work and spent a lot of nights with the street people. So, I am telling Kevin and Mary-N...start making babies will ya? When you getting hitched?

rinnah said...

One more reminder that I should start living life now, not when it's too late to do so.

Sorry to hear about your friend's mum and your friend...

J u n e said...

Ahh lifee...so sorry to hear about your friend's mom...will pray along for your friend..

conan_cat said...

ahh, a very cold reminder, but nevertheless it is very true. we all love enjoying life to its fullest, but sometimes we just forgotten about the limits. we had fun in night clubs, dare our friends to drink more than us and we ended up getting kidney failure.

everything has it's limits, really. it's just a matter of maximizing the joy out of it.

DaphStar* said...

Was reading the papers today about the ferry tragedy and the trauma of the girl who lost her family and fiance in the accident. We must always cherish our loved ones while they are still on the face of earth.It is not a cliche but a constant reminder to young people like us who are busy chasing our dreams and fulfilling our aspirations.

zewt said...

freethinker - .... is fragile...

Helen - i think it's all cos of the food we eat... and the life with live. i need to sleep and not blog till so late.

_butt - yeah, will never will. we are just not made for such thing.

lynnx01 - sorry to hear about your grandma. at my friend's mom's wake... i am reminded again of my mom. how i wish i cherished her more when she was around.

bengbeng - yeah, i guess it is the entry into the next phase of life... i guess i am a member of this club. shall look at things from a different angle from now on.

Y.E@eevet - true enough... we need to be reminded of pain, so as to appreciate the rose in our lives.

pookyma - sorry to hear about that. life is indeed fragile... make full of yours.

zewt said...

Lil' Ms Pinky - i shall...

water_angel - ... and we shall bleed when we feel those thorns...

Angie Tan - yeah, life is so short we dunno when it will just end. if we can treat each day like our last... it will be wonderful.

cibol - we all know that, but can we truly do that? it's a challenge indeed.

Dancing Queen - agreed... and cherish those around us too.

democratic junkie - hahaha... thanks, i got it fixed already :)

purple mushroom - but u must know... some day, you must let them go.

zewt said...

ehon - we are lucky... but we shall be unlucky if we failed to be reminded.

constant craver joe - yeah, that seems to be the rule of thumb.

zorro - hahahah... good to know it was a false alarm. i hope kevin and mary-n will hear ya soon enough. as for me... it will be next year.

rinnah - yeah, i think we all need constant reminder. think i should do an ARK check soon too.

AngryYoungChild - thanks... my friend's name is terence.

conan_cat - yeah... i should really stop blogging till late and sleep. health is not getting any better with all these late nights.

DaphStar* - indeed... we are so busy with so many things, we forget what is most important. sometimes, we may have already achieved our greatest dreams without us knowing it.

TH said...

I know what it's like. Being bogged down by work and having so many unlucky events lately, I ran away for a break. Sitting across the ocean, I had it all, and when I called back home to my family, that was the inspiration. Life to the fullest eh?

Cocka Doodle said...

Sorry to hear about your friend's mum.

Yep, life is awfully fragile and that's why it's important to go for that annual check up, stick a scope on both ends etc. to ensure everything is alright or detected early.

Doreen said...

I'm sorry about your friend's mom and your mentor. Hope your mentor get well soon.

btw, you're getting married? Congrats wor.

Acrix said...

Oh well, time wil come for all these eventually. Just enjoy urself for the moment and dun forget to say I love U to the people whom u love and care :p

may said...

and while we know life is fragile, life is also meant to be lived to the fullest. celebrate life! :)

Anonymous said...

yes, I was thinking to myself the other day, how much time I waste sitting around doing nothing.

time to wake up for me ...

Horny Ang Moh said...

I might work my as*s off everyday trying to earn a living, but in 'bad' time I just 'downgrade' myself. This way I am still happy with my simple life, not use to presue something beyond my abilities.Have a nice day!

Anonymous said...

Augustine put it this way in a sermon to his people:

There are two things enjoined in this life by the Lord, which seem toilsome to us: to hold back and to hold out - restraint and endurance.

We are told to restrain ourselves or hold back from things that in this world are called good, and to hold out against or endure the things that abound in this world that are bad.

Whether we never had it so good or never had it so bad, we must wait for the Lord, wait for him to give us what is truly good and pleasant and to ward off from us what is truly evil.

Sermon 38, 1.1; cf. City of God, 1.29

Sunshine said...

my ex boss dropped dead at the toilet, he was in his late 30's, he had a heart attack...

no sign's at all, he was supposed to fly to kl that day for a meeting with us...

next thing we know, someone called up and said meeting is cancelled.. boss is gone...

life is full of unexpected events..

Anonymous said...

life's reality... continuously doing what are righteousness & and leave the rest to God.

Eileen said...

Amen and God bless, Zewt! Yeah, I learning to enjoy life everyday too :) But always thanks for the kind reminder :)

Z said...

oh dear...

my mom used to have some stones in her bladder too, and she had to undergo an operation last year (or was it last2 year?) anyhow, after cutting across her tummy to attack the evil bladderstone and rid of it for causing trouble to mom (heheh), what came out was a blackish rockish thing of about 2cm along with some smaller versions of it.

it was a horrid sight, and the thought of having such things grow in you without you knowing it is terrifying. and the fact that it can be fatal is even more frightening. -_- thank god no complications after that.

so i hope all goes well for your worship leader and let it only be a stone and not a tumor, and hope he gets healthy =)

and it's true, we should really not take our health for granted and care for our eating habits. and just bcuz our country is rich in foods doesnt mean we should not mind what we eat (actually have to mind more la, right?);)

so anyways, hope all of you zewt readers (and zewt too of course) have a good day ahead. cheers~

Mcmercedez said...

I always have a thought that how fragile life can be.. This is a question that I think no one will be able to answer...

As part of overcoming this part of the question, I believe that God have plans for everyone's life in this world.. So, I hand over this question to God and he will guide me through..

So, I just live my life to the fullest everyday.. Enjoy while I can and make happy moments everyday.. hehe...

Dangerous Variable said...

awwwww zewt!

How could it be..? life's like that la! People come and people go.

This year itself I have experience the whole lot of my family friends dropping dead like flies!

:P take it easy la!

Anonymous said...

so zewt learn to let go & relax, if need to then learn from the man himself ( if one can still call him a man)...

the political doctrines of bodowi in bolehland...

having nasi kandar & rendezvous with some frenchie & mrs in down under when whole of johor is under water.

having a time of his life in paris/new york when the fabric of the juduciary in tatters.

spending rm100m for a dr to spin some tops & make couple of teh-tarik when thousand of ppl couldn't even have a decent raya do
for their family

etc....

whatever it is, just do what fark lah will do...

kasi buang itu semua keruh, ambil sama itu punya jernih...

i tak tau, ini i mau tidur dulu, lain kali baru cakap...

rainbow angeles said...

You think as time goes by, with all these reminders popping up every now and then, we'll get numb?

sharlydia said...

I was at the funeral today...Cant helped it but cried while telling our friend who lost her mum not to be too sad and pls take care...I cant imagine how sad i'll be if i'm in her shoes...

Maverick SM said...

I believe we should just live our life as what we had plan to do and whatever we can do to make ourself happy. Let tomorrow be another day.

Jun said...

darn right u are! so, u're getting mawwieed??? :D congrats!! when's the big day, if i may ask?

zewt said...

Twisted Heels - i think one of the secret of living life to the fullest is to actually... stop and do nothing... dont u think?

Cocka Doodle - i might need to do one soon u know...

Doreen - yeah, hope my mentor will get well soon. thanks for your wishes :)

Acrix - i certainly wont.

may - but dont feast too much... bad for health :)

jasonphoon - sometimes, doing nothing is better than keep doing something.

zewt said...

hor ny - i think it's good to have an understanding gf... it helps... :)

anon @ 11.34am - it's not easy to live life that way. what i seek is a balanced life. that's the best we can give ourselves.

Sunshine - only goes to show that we must not work like our bosses.

anon @ 11.45am - i will try my best.

princess eileen - i will continue to remind u all...

Zaty - how is your mom now? hope she has fully recovered. thanks for the well wishes... yeah, good health is just so important. dont eat too much during your open house...

zewt said...

Mcmercedez - we alway say we live live to the fullest... but what exactly are we doing? hmmm... i think that's a good blog topic.

Dangerous variable - that's bad man. let's hope we will have better days. but then again, it is indeed part and parcel of life.

anon @ 3.46pm - hahaha... i am sure u will like my latest entry.

angel - we just have to slap ourselves silly to do away with the numbness.

sharlydia - i wonder if you went to my friend's funeral.

Maverick SM - Amen to that... :)

Jun - next year... very soon though :)...thanks for the wishes...

Z said...

haha, i think i'll be too busy going around the place to refill to plates/containers to eat that much. lol

she's doing much better now, tho it took her more than a month to be able to get up and walk steadily (because of the cut across her stomach). until now she complains hat the stitches feel kind of 'geli2' sometimes, but nothing serious la

=)

MikeM said...

my sincere condolences... life is indeed fragile...

Huei said...

sigh..y is everybody leaving?

life's too fragile..just like that, and people go..

my deepest condolences to your friend and his family..and praying that your mentor will recover soon

Mumsgather said...

You ARE getting old. Hehe. After a certain age, you'll realise that everyone starts paying a price for their younger follies. Almost everyone I know have health problems now, including myself. So yes, cherish life and cherish those around you is very good advise indeed.

WY said...

condolence for your friend.

life is fragile, indeed. came so close to losing my dad recently.

be strong and live on, that;s all i can think of now.

zewt said...

zaty - good to know. continue to take care of her... i am sure u will, right?

michael song - thanks.

huei - thanks. hope he will be alright.

mumsgather - yeah.. i think i should sleep now.

rational thinker - sorry to hear about your dad. hope he is in the pinkest of health now.

Anonymous said...

True, life is very fragile and 'suddenly'.

I remember too when my dad had stroke after my grandma passed away for 2 weeks. I just felt so bad and worried. It's just sad..

Actually i start to love my family more only after losing my grandma. Bcoz if they left without me doing something nice to them, it will be the greatest regret in my life..

zewt said...

seok thong - yeah... that day, jules said i changed a lot since the passing of my mom...speaks loads too.