Sometimes .....
By Dr Sanjiva Wijesinha
A few days ago, one of my friends – a former classmate who is now domiciled overseas – sent me this lovely poem by Robert Drake. It struck a chord in me – so much so that I felt I must share it with you my readers, because it would make an excellent theme for this month’s article. Drake’s poem went something like this:
‘Sometimes I feel I want to go back in time -not to change things, but to feel a couple of things twice Sometimes, I wish I was a baby for a while -not to be walked in a pram but to see my mother’s smile Sometimes, I wish I could go back to school - not to become a child again but to spend more time with those friends whom I never met after school Sometimes I wish I could be back in university -not to be a rebel but to really understand what I studied Sometimes I wish I was once more a fresher at work -not to do less work but to recall the joy of receiving my first pay cheque Sometimes I wish my kids were younger - not because they grew so fast but in order to play with them more Sometimes I wish I still had more time to live -not to have a longer life but to know what more I could give to others Since the times that are gone can never come back let us enjoy the moments from now on to the fullest. Let us celebrate our remaining Life – every moment and every day.’
Once you pass the milestone of three score years and ten, you realise that the older you get, the closer eternity seems. Since we are all going to reach that inevitable destination sometime, the best thing to do along this journey of Life is to enjoy the journey. You can increase your riches in this life, not by accumulating wealth but by reducing your wants – and when the opportunity presents itself, by doing things to help make life easier for others. Those lines in Drake’s poem about wishing to go back to school in order to spend more time with those friends whom I seldom met after school resonated with me because several of these friends from my schooldays passed away during the course of this year. A couple of them were friends from primary school, three were pals from our O’Level days and one I had known from as far back as the “baby class” at the girls’ school where he and I constituted 50% of the boys in the class. As schoolboys we spend a lot of time in the company of our classmates and schoolmates – yet once we leave school we go our separate ways. Ofcourse when we do meet (the occasions sadly being few and far between) it is not difficult to reconnect because we have been through so many escapades together and share so many memories – but for various reasons the times that we meet since leaving school can be counted on the fingers of one hand (and there will still be a finger or two left over).One of the opportunities we have in retirement is to reconnect with old friends. Of\ course, there is so much to do once you retire that sometimes finding the time to do what YOU want to do can be hard! However you can always make the time if you really have the intention. A letter or a card (we in this country still have one of the cheapest mail services in the world!), a phone call (WhatsApp and Viber being cheaper than Sri Lanka Telecom), even an email – just a reach out to reconnect with an old friend while they are still alive is so much better than attending the funeral of that friend you were meaning to get in touch with but never did. I remember a quotation from a book by Paolo Coelho “One day we will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things we’ve always wanted to do. Do it NOW!” We are now at the age where it is time to make full use of the remains of the day.
Sanjiva Wijesinha is the author of Tales From my Island – see https://www. amazon.com/Tales-Island-StoriesFriendship-Childhood-ebook/dp/ B00R3TS1QQ/