Today marked the second year of my father’s passing, and as I commemorate his life and how he lived, I have been reflecting on some of our discussions about life.
My father lived up to his 80s, and he experienced life under colonial Nigeria , the Biafran war, post-colonial Nigeria and life in Canada and America. He also experienced decades of life as a university lecturer, business man, politician, philanthropist and being the son of a staunch educationist.
He loved teaching and he would call me often and talk about the lessons life had taught him. His voice was laced with so much experience and I would often say little, while listening intently to his wisdom.
In one of these talks, he described the phases of life and how each phase was intricately linked to the need to make the right choices at the right time. He strongly believed that the individual had responsibility over choosing their paradigm of happiness – and getting this right required appropriate timing.
He emphasized that once one made a decision, it was important to act on it, as we would all eventually run out of time. In his view, inaction, akin to indifference, had very costly consequences.
As my father fought through the pains of cancer, he reminded me of all the things he still wanted to do and how time was running out.
As I remember him today, I reflect on the temporal nature of the phases of life and I am intently attuned to the hope that 2023 promises – with new opportunities to refocus and act on the positively impactful things that truly matter.