Life is short.... embrace it!

One can lose his or her life in a second, minute, a blink of an eye. We are not invincible you see and therefore must change the way we look at our lives. We must change the way we are living. We should not spend the precious moments of the day arguing, fighting, humiliating and hating. Instead, we should spend them discussing, negotiating, compromising, respecting and loving. And despite the  fact that some people live to be a hundred, life is still short. Can you imagine what those people have lived through in those 100 years? How many wars caused by greedy people, dictators or nations , have they witnessed? Should I count? Life is short people... 

I have experienced many incidents that brought me close to death... I love adventure... hiking, abseiling, climbing... granted I have not done much except visit beaches in the last two years, but my love of adventure has not died... it is just dormant due to having young kids. :)

One experience that brought me close to death was on top of the Victoria Falls, on the Zambian side. It was the dry season and my husband and I decided to hike on top of the falls. If we had visited this breath- taking place during the rainy season, there would have been no way for us to cross it. We hiked all the way to the Devil's Chair (which is a pool you can sit in and look over the waterfall). On the way back, there was a dangerous part where the water was strong. You can actually see it in the picture above. Our guide walked ahead of me and my husband walked behind me. The guide had warned us to be extra careful as the rocks we were walking on were slippery with moss and if we did happen to slip, we would end up being dragged down the waterfall.

Well, what I dreaded happened. I slipped exactly where the guide told us not to... but thankfully he caught my right hand while my legs were parallel to the water and then my husband took a hold of my left arm. I almost lost my life that day. but you know what? It did not bother me much... I mean, I did not think about it much the whole day... it was just another adventurous thing that happened to me.

Another time, was when I was in Amman driving my car to go to a friend's dinner party. I had stopped at a traffic light... was the first one in line. There was water running down hill and I remember telling myself that it would be slippery and that I should be careful to drive slowly and not to put my foot on the break. As soon as the light turned green, I put my foot gently on the accelerator. As I was turning to go down hill my car's steering wheel locked and I could not control the car... I did not put any breaks on because I knew that it would spin out of control...my car ended up perpendicular to the island with the other cars coming towards me. 

There was nothing I could do but to watch the cars coming. I thought if I jumped to the passenger's seat I would be ok since it was further away from the oncoming traffic but I was wearing my seat belt and so had no time to do so. One car smashed into my door and another into it. Everybody was ok and thankfully there was not much damage. We later found out from the police that there were two other car accidents on the same road that evening due to the oil in the soapy water which was coming from a gas station on top of the hill. 

So you see... I was close to dying twice in my life if not more. And I know that life is so easily taken away from us and yet we take it for granted. We fight wars and take other people's lives knowing that our lives could be taken as well. We are so ready to go out there and fight and sometimes it is all for the wrong reasons. I will never argue fighting for a good cause but there are so many different ways of fighting... it does not all have to be about killing; robing other people of their lives. 

Even though negotiating and discussing issues and problems logically and respectfully, finding a compromise, a balance where everyone is happy and content, might be a difficult path to walk, we could do it... anything can work with perseverance. Anything can be resolved with patience open-mindedness, love and respect for different views. 

We do not all have to think the same way to be able to get along... what is wonderful about this world is its diversity. If we all thought the same way, if we all were of the same color, same religion, same ethnicity, same background... same everything... can you imagine how boring this world we live in would be? We should celebrate diversity. Celebrate life!

Life can escape our grip in an instant. Let us focus on coming together instead of going apart.