A month later...

Was just reading the news, when the tributes to the 52 people killed in the bombing caught my eye. I cried reading what was said about them... warm loving words carved on ice cold stone.

It made me wonder what would then be said about me, should I be gone tomorrow? Did I make an impact on the lives on the people I've loved? Did my being here in this world make a difference, perhaps not in the world, but in the worlds of those whom I've had contact with...

At the very least, if I've brought a smile to someone's face, brightened up someone's day, or soothed a broken heart, and eased one life the aching... then I shall not have lived in vain.

At times like this I question.. I question the justice, or rather the injustice of life.

What wrong did they do to deserve this? Nothing. Tragedy knows not it's victims.

Same with the stories of the people who are still waiting on news of their loved ones. Sometimes I wonder if it's better not to know and keep hope alive, or whether the knowing is better, when there's no cause for hope anymore. Because hope hurts.

I feel for the victims. Watching the reports on TV, reading the stories... it's sad. And the saddest thing is that there's nothing we can do do to help them save for offering them moral support and being there. Which isn't much.

At times like these we are faced with our own mortality. That we don't know which hug, which smile or laughter will be our last. Nobody expected it to happen, and yet it did. It happened, and who knows what was the last thing they did... would they regret the petty quarrel they had last night? Or would their last memory of the dead be that of sorrow and pain?

Perhaps the only thing we can do it to learn from it. To realise that our life hangs on a fragile thread, and that we should never take our loved ones for granted..

Then perhaps, if this is the lesson that we learn, then maybe their deaths, though tragic, will not be so senseless...

* * *

Living My Life...

Let me live to toil and fight;
Hate the wrong and love the right;
Stand for truth in night or day;
Cleanse all words I have to say.

Let me live to aim and rise;
Above the earth to bright blue skies;
Spread goodwill, love, unity and much more;
Take more strength in faith than before.

Let me live in peace with God;
Walk with joy wherever I may trod;
Wait for grace when goodness live;
Let me learn to truly live.

-Vish