~ The Next Breath...~

She just came back from the dead by kissing the confluence of life and death, with no hope of making it to the other end of life, she whatsapped me “Don’t know if I will make it!” but with a will-power and the persistent chant of God’s name, she made it today.

Today came the good news that my friend tricked death and came out hale and hearty from the ICU where she saw the dance of death almost daily. When the next breath was the only wish one could have asked for and the effort to get it was humungous and with each passing second you fought the losing battle, suddenly life seems to be so worthwhile – the value of it grows reverentially!

I didn’t wanted to take her to recent past and asked only one question.

“So, what was your takeaway from this life touching event Simran?” I asked the obvious question.

She chocked and after a glaring silence she responded – “The breath we take so effortlessly and assuming it to be coming next time is the most important aspect which we so shamelessly take for granted. God forbid, if one goes into a condition of gasping for it, he/she would get to know the value of a single breath!” – These words were coming from a lady who had herself gone through a harrowing experience of breathlessness due to Corona. Suddenly she had to be hospitalized and her Spo2 level was constantly degrading - no oxygen support or medicines were of any help and with passing minutes, dizziness was coming in.

“ The last time I saw my mother as a shady image before I was pulled into the ICU bed – I wont every forget that feeling of terrible fear – as if it was the last time I was seeing her and wont be able to make it alive from this place. The constant gasp for oxygen was making me dive into giddiness and all I could hear the hush-hush activity around me – someone putting oxygen mask into my face , other putting canula into my body – suddenly I was made to look like body entrapped in medical machinery with a certainty of death!”

As she came back home today, I could see the change in her attitude and thoughts about life – The enigma is gone, and she wants to live each day as it comes but with gratitude and all humbleness.

“Things which you make you live are all been bestowed on this planet naturally – first being ‘Air’, then ‘Water’ – We think we can replicate these resources to our usage but we are grossly wrong – what comes naturally to you cannot be replicated.”

She thus spoke further “God has given a perfect balance of nature for us to survive yet we don’t obligate the power of nature. I have learnt my lesson the hard way and wont forget this ever in my life.”

Today, while speaking to her, I got reminded for the all the prudence she spoke – In reality, we are taking the natural gift of nature with all its easiness, forgetting that the perils of  imbalance can cost us our lives – the current imbroglio which we all are facing is a critical example of humanity paying the price of tampering with nature – we certainly have paid a heavy price of this advent!

Finally, as we exchanged goodbyes and prayed for good days ahead – the ending tone from her really marked the wisdom and life lesson gathered from a traumatic experience, “Be grateful and show gratitude to each living soul around you – thinking there may be no tomorrow!”

Mind it – these words are always in my thoughts ever since they were listened to!