Love more, laugh harder and seek God for life is very short

Spend time with your children for you never know when that cold Tuesday morning will come and you will be gone.

What you need to know:

  • To wake up and run your errands and go back home to your family in one piece is a miracle we like to forget.
  • Few of us will be prepared for the exit, even fewer of us will have reached our utmost potential by the time we die.

There are men with potential and then there was Dr Wahome Gakuru.

A man of vision and teeming with big dreams for Nyeri County.

It was very clear that the people of Nyeri had struck a gold mine by electing a man of Dr Wahome’s stature.

LEADERSHIP
If all went well, it seemed to me that Dr Wahome would have been a benchmark of what visionary leadership should be about.

Who knows, maybe he had it in him the seed of national leadership.

Sadly, the people of Nyeri and Kenyans will never see what would have become of Dr Wahome.

In fact, I dare say that he is the best governor that Nyeri County will never have.

That said, I must also add that Dr Gakuru’s sudden death jolted me to reflect about life.

RAILWAY

The governor had previously hosted his son and classmates from Alliance High School in his Runda home, to wish them well in their KCSE examinations.

A few days earlier, the governor accompanied his colleagues from central Kenya to make plans to revive the Nairobi-Nanyuki railway line.

Nobody knew that it was the last time they were seeing the governor.

Until that chilly, rainy Tuesday morning when the governor met a most painful death.

It is heart-breaking when I imagine that the governor got into his Mercedes Benz E250 to come to Nairobi for an interview with Kameme TV, but arrived in the city in a body bag, and not to his predetermined destination, but to a cold box in the morgue.

PRIVILEGE
The things we take for granted, my friends. To wake up and run your errands and go back home to your family in one piece is a miracle we like to forget.

It cannot be underscored enough that life is short and fragile.

Few of us will be prepared for the exit, even fewer of us will have reached our utmost potential by the time we die.

Think about it. Would you be satisfied with your life if you learnt that by this time tomorrow your family will be planning your funeral?

PEACE
Which is why I would like to encourage you to avoid living as if you will be around forever.

Do not, for a moment, take your life for granted. Occupy your life with only the things that matter.

Make peace with everyone, even those that do not love peace, for your life is too short to spend at war.

Start that project you have been putting off for years.

LOVE
Tell the people around you that you love and appreciate them.

Spend time with your children for you never know when that cold Tuesday morning will come and you will be gone.

Look your children in the eye, tell them you love and support them and that you will always be there for them because one day, when you are gone, they will need to replay those words in their mind.

Love more, hate less. Let go of grudges. Forgive at all times, and avoid a life of bitterness and anger, you don’t want to miss out on the bubbly warm feeling of love.

Do not waste your energy on vengeance. Spend your energy on making peace and loving more. Do not die an angry person.

NATURE
Don’t spend all your time working, holed up in your office.

Take some time off for a long evening walk in Karura forest, breathe the fresh air and laugh with the monkeys; for one day, you will be shoved into a fridge, awaiting your burial.

Do the things you love, be with the people you love, follow your passions and pursue your dreams relentlessly.

Your life is far too fragile to spend unhappy and disillusioned.

PRAYER
Above all, ensure that you are at peace with God. Spend time on your knees, make prayer your daily bread.

Read your Bible or Koran or whatever it is that you read. Allow God to speak to you through His word.

There is a certain unbounding solace in God’s word, as there is a certain peace of mind in knowing that God is your friend.

Only through such a divine connection do you realise your true north.

Finally, allow yourself to be soaked in God’s love, to know Him more, to experience Him in a profound way, that when He calls you home, He will be pleased with what you did with your life.

Live a life of meaning so when you are gone, we will say of you, “God picked His best”.