Don’t waste your time

Each beautiful soul we lose lives on in our hearts. We owe it to them and to ourselves to keep their memory and their spirit alive, and to live our lives to the full.

I was going to start this post by asking if you have ever lost someone. But it seems a redundant question. If we have the good fortune to live long enough, each of us will have the horrible misfortune to lose people we like or love.

Loss is a part of every life. Without loss, life would not be life.

How often we think about those we lose is a measure of the liking or love that we feel for them. They live on in our hearts.

The oddest things can bring to mind those we have lost.

What reminds you of those beautiful souls that you have liked or loved who are no longer with us?

Somewhere in time

Music can be a powerful and moving reminder of the spirit of those who have departed.

Almost two years ago, a friend of mine passed away.* I cannot claim to have been his closest friend. But I always liked him. My social media interactions and real-life meetings with him would always, always improve my day. I enjoyed our shared love of music, especially that from the heavier and more metallic end of the musical spectrum.

My friend loved Iron Maiden. I thought it horribly sad that he was taken from us just a few days before the release of their 2021 album Senjutsu. I know my friend would have loved it. I would have loved to have had the privilege to rave about this record with him.

Listening to Senjutsu always makes me think of my friend, this soul who was taken from us too soon. The other day, I found myself in tears while listening to its closing track, Hell on Earth. I felt emotionally overwhelmed. Knowing how much my friend would have loved this song. Knowing that he was never able to hear it.

My reaction to his passing is as nothing compared to the loss that must have been felt and must still be being felt by those who were lucky enough to know him better than I did. Nonetheless, I miss him deeply, and often.

Next month I am seeing Iron Maiden live in London. I will be thinking of my dear departed friend. For this tour, Iron Maiden are leaning heavily on their 1986 album Somewhere in Time. This means that they will be playing my friend’s favourite song of theirs, Wasted Years. I can remember him saying once, somewhere on social media, that every time he saw them play Wasted Years live, he would get what he called “a speck of dust” in his eye. I fully expect that I will get more than “a speck of dust” in my eye when they play that song that night. I will be thinking of that lovely soul that we have lost, whose spirit I want always to keep alive.

Not to waste any time

Wasted Years is a song about making the most of the time that you have. Its chorus includes the following words:

“Don’t waste your time always searching for those wasted years
Face up, make your stand
Realise you’re living in the golden years.”

I came across a coincidental and quite beautiful echo of these words in an Irish Times article about Ireland’s oldest woman Máirín Hughes, who celebrated turning 109 last month. Máirín shares her secret to a long life, well lived:

“Live life to the full. Not to waste any time, I think, is important.”

Each beautiful soul we lose lives on in our hearts. We owe it to them and to ourselves to keep their memory and their spirit alive, and to live our lives to the full.

May you see and celebrate many more birthdays, Máirín.

Similar good wishes to you, gentle reader.

May you be nothing but kind today, to others and to yourself.

May today be nothing but kind to you and yours.

FOOTNOTES

* I wrote about this lovely soul a few days after we lost him, in Spirit in black.

IMAGES

• Claude Monet – Water Lilies (14704485846) via Wikimedia Commons.
• Iron Maiden – Chicago (2573842156) via Wikimedia Commons.
• The Wasted Years (1916) – 1 via Wikimedia Commons.
• Water lilies Monet via Wikimedia Commons.