BUSINESS AND LIFE: Life is Precious: Treasure it!

This week, I deviate from my stated intent to focus on the meaning of life. It is fortuitous that I titled this column, “Business and Life”, so that allows me to deviate from Business topics ever so often, to dwell on issues of life.

Last week, a good friend of mine from Antigua, Brent Dorsin Romere Joseph passed away suddenly.  To say I was shocked is an understatement.  Brent was a health and fitness buff.  He went to the gym daily from about 5am, belonged to a hiking group that hiked regularly in Antigua and travelled to other islands just for hiking.  His group was in Dominica for Easter about three years ago. He ate mostly fruits, vegetables and grilled fish.  He drank lots of water, drank no alcohol and never smoked.  This is often proffered as the recipe for a long and healthy life.  He died at 49, one month short of his 50th birthday.  This brings to mind something Ma Topie, one of our centenarians living in La Plaine, said to me when I interviewed her in January of this year prior to the Phenomenal Caribbean Women Symposium.  I asked her what was the secret to her long and healthy life and she answered, “It has nothing to do with me.  It is not about the food I ate or did not eat, the things I did or did not do.  It is because of God; His grace and mercy”.  Let me get back to the moment I heard the news of Brent’s passing.

On Thursday, April 4, I woke up with a joy in my heart as the night before VF Inc hosted its first Public Lecture that was a resounding success.  Truth be told, that night I was so elated and my heart so thankful I could not go to bed and stayed up until 2:30am working on an assignment.  I was up at 5:30am and out of my home by 6:40am.  My first stop was at the St. Gerard’s Cathedral Chapel to give God thanks before the Blessed Sacrament, and then off to my office, where before beginning my day’s work, I tweeted, posted messages on Facebook and LinkedIn about the Lecture.  When Nyome came in, she was amused that I had updated the accounts for I am really not into social media.

It was 8:46am, when my friend Stephanie Harris Burke who lives in Antigua broke the news that Brent apparently collapsed and died that morning at his home, on his way to work.  She did not have the details.  I was stunned by this news and it brought me back to about two weeks ago when I received some sad, unexpected news.  I then thought about Brent’s children.  Brent lived and worked for his children.  They were the apples of his eyes and one of the posts on his daughter’s Facebook page “…I can hear you say “hey beauty box” with a big smile.  I love you soo much Daddy.  When I think of how much of a magnificent man you were, I can actually smile”, is a testament of his love for his children.  Brent was easy-going, generous, always with a ready-smile and a kind word.  He was a gentle soul.

Two thoughts crowded my mind and have stayed with me.  They have made it easier to accept this sudden passing.  One is from Job (1:21), “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh, Blessed be His name”, and the other is a quote my father repeated to us often growing up: “I pass this way but once; any good I can do or any kindness I can show to a human being; let me do it now.  Let me not defer or neglect it; for I shall not pass this way again” (Etienne de Grellect, a Quaker missionary).  The latter is so poignant for I had been meaning on calling Brent for the past two weeks and the last thing I said to Martha and Nyome while rushing out of the office about 5:45 pm on the Wednesday evening to go home to prepare for the Lecture, was “I must call Brent tomorrow.  The day cannot end and I have not called him”.  Tomorrow never came.

Tomorrow is not ours.  James (4:15) warns us, “you never know what will happen tomorrow: you are no more than a mist that is here for a little while and then disappears.  The most you should ever say is: ‘if it is the Lord’s will, we shall still be alive to do this or that’.”   Yet how often we forget in the busyness of our everyday life.  We leave for tomorrow so many things: to make it right with God, to repair broken relationships, to show others we care, to talk and really know and understand our children and other important persons in our lives and the list continues.

We have been gifted with the present, and we have to make the best use of it.  We have to do now, what we can and not leave it for tomorrow.  We have to focus on the things that are important.  First, we have to be right with God, loving Him with all our heart, mind and soul.  Secondly we have to be right with our neighbours and this includes our family, friends, strangers and enemies. In practical ways, we have to place God first in our lives, ask forgiveness of those who we have wronged, forgive those who wronged us, do and be good to others, build and strengthen our relationships with our family and friends, strive for balance in our lives, take time to appreciate the handiwork of God around us, discover and work towards fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives and be thankful for life.  This list is by no means exhaustive.

Let us not ignore the inner voice, which is telling us to call or visit a family or friend, to do a good deed, to take some quiet time to recharge, to pray and to get closer to God, to repair a relationship, to reach out to a stranger or lonely person, to visit the sick and shut-in, to put our faith in action. Let us not leave it for tomorrow, for tomorrow or even later do not belong to us.  Let us do it now.

I have some calls to make and people to see if the Lord wills.  Life is a gift and precious; we must treasure it.

So until next week, God willing, may God continue to keep us in the palm of His hands and give us the heart to love and seek Him first and then to love our neighbours as ourselves.  God Bless!