Suzy Peaches' Fruit Basket (Issue #3)

Living a life of Relevance

Hello my lovely readers thanks for all your notes and comments of the past couple of weeks. Today I’ll attempt to write an inspirational blog on living a life of relevance.

A couple of months ago Mona sent me an email containing a link to a website of a girl who had died in Lagos. Her name was Bukky Shonowo and she was only 24. Please excuse my use of the word only but I cant help but think that she was still so young. As I began to read some of the tributes that had been left for her I started to feel dizzy and I broke now – I wept like I have never done before. Sense and reality evaded me, I was conscious of the fact that I was at work but I just couldn’t control myself. I honestly felt I could faint – it was such an overwhelming experience. It wasn’t long before half of the department gathered round to try and console me. Some read it and were sober but others were generally unmoved. No one could understand my grief especially as I had never heard of her or knew her while she was alive. I tried hard to gain composure but to no avail and eventually my manager told me to take the rest of the day, as I was evidently distraught.

I sat in my car for hours I willed to turn on the ignition and drive but my fingers would move - at that point nothing seemed to make sense. As I sat there reflecting on what has just happened I began to ponder on what the essence of life was? I wasn’t shaken solely because someone young had died but rather for the realisation that it could have been me or even you. It was like God was specifically talking to me about the way I had been living my life and the essence or purpose of my being here. I later found out that all 3 of my sisters had actually attended the same school as her and that I had been in the same year as her sister who was equally as lovely so maybe we are somehow connected.

What am I getting at? Bukky - like many others, who went before her lived a life of relevance. She played a major role in the lives of those connected to her and always some how managed leave a positive impression and mark wherever she went. Her mother described her as a woman of virtue and good character and even likened her to the Proverbs 31:10 woman. Now that is some tribute! Someone described her as the epitome of Love – she had a heart for others. Everybody had nice things to say about her – I ask what do people have to say about you?

In hindsight I realise that I was not weeping for her but for myself – we were the same age and I knew that I had not achieved anything like she had. But most pertinently I wept because I was confronted with the realisation that not all of us are destined to live for many years – till we are old. Although we pray and hope that we do there is no guarantee. Today I want to provoke you to think about how you want to remembered and encourage you to begin to take steps to create that vision. Ask yourself

• Do you play a significant role in the lives of your friends and family?


• Are you living a life of relevance?


• Are you relevant in you relationships?


• Will your absence cause the world of another to shatter?
  

Take time out to evaluate your friendships and relationships – identify the ties that need to be severed and those that need to be reinforced. Stop procrastinating and begin to fill your life – so that whenever we are called to glory it can be said of us that we lived fulfilled lives. I beg you begin to LIVE A LIFE OF RELEVANCE!

That's all from me this week – I look forward to getting some feedback so keep it coming. Bye.