We all go through this journey called life, typically in our own patterns or ways that keep our focus on the daily tasks. At least we try to make things easy, creatures of habit and all, working the daily grind to stay alive and maybe focus on a little bit of happiness that we can hold for moments.
Death is a sobering reality which makes that bit and part of life that much real in a lot of respects. At this point in my life I liken it a light. You don’t really notice how bright the room is, it’s a subtle thing that you can attune to, but you don’t outright directly think about most times. When a death happens, it’s such an empty feeling, like a light has turned out in your room that you maybe didn’t notice before but it’s darker.
The problem is that you can’t really turn that light back on, either, no matter how much you would try. You can get a different light, but it’s not the same. It can be close to the same, but it’s not the same. Life is filled with those little bits of light, sometimes they stay forever, and sometimes they drift in and out. And when they do go out, the coldest and darkest moments hit the hardest, the loss of that little bit of life and joy that made a difference in your life overall. Some people don’t even notice how much light they had in their room until they start losing bulbs, one by one. You can try and fill the room with different light, but if you really valued the light, it will always be an indelible memory in your life.
And then time moves us forward, back to the grind of life, back to the routines and daily duty when we forget the lights are on again until the next one is ready to go out.
“A good friend once told me, we are memories, without them we equal nothing” is a lyric from Avenged Sevenfold that I like. When you start valuing the light in your life, you might stop to take a moment and truly appreciate the joy and happiness that exists in it right now.