A very dear friend has passed away. I know it’s something someone somewhere goes through every day, and more so in our current chaotic times. So this is for all of us.
It’s something that I can’t quite get my mind around. The man who supported me through grief, through despair, through tough times is no more.
He was a special person, a deep thinker, someone who felt things intensely yet was also able to laugh long and hard – and he had a wicked, dry, dry sense of humour. I once gave him a T-shirt with an awful pattern on it and labelled it MOMA (Moving Modern Art), it was an ugly thing. But he wore it with great glee whenever he knew I would be around.
A writer, editor, mentor, and coach, David was interested in everything, from the big questions to the smallest, from where we come from, to how is your daughter doing.
He worried about poverty, about climate change, about social justice. He followed current affairs closely and studied esoteric knowledge systems. He spent his life looking for answers to his many questions, checking the veracity of everything over and over.
Learning was important to him. Once, I gave him a bonsai tree as a gift, but it unfortunately died. So he went on to become an expert in growing miniature trees.
He … I could go on all day.
Why am I telling you this?
Because, despite the big picture issues of the day – the global pandemic, the days of fire in South Africa – our lives have meaning through our interactions with others. In keeping with the concept of Ubuntu, it is ultimately about the people closest to us, how we support one another, how we care for one another, how we bond with one another matters.
Our lives are about love and laughter, living to the fullness of our beings without hiding behind the expectations of others, or of trying to live out a socially-required role.
David has left me with many treasured gifts, memories of times spent in joy and in sorrow, gentle reminders of living my life authentically, advice on dealing with the hardest of challenges …. And so much more.
So I’m taking the time now to remember that life is about stopping to tell everyone I love how much they mean to me. Life is about acknowledging a life lived, judged not by what is achieved materially, financially, socially, but by simply being.
My friend David died today. And I am grateful to have known him.
Jennifer Tennant
alstarlife.blog 