Living like it's your last day on earth

M came back from Germany last week, for sad reasons.  We met at her dad's wake.  He had a heart attack and it happened so quick.  She was lucky to be able to jump on a flight real quick and be back with her sister and mom.  We chatted about whether he knew he was having a heart attack (he's a GP with his own clinic) - we will never know.

M and I shared a tent for 3 weeks on our Mt Everest base camp hiking trip.  We got along infamously well.  Over the years though, we lost contact.  The last time I met her was 2009 she was based in Shanghai then and me on a biz trip (I was based in Taipei then).   We caught up over breakfast in Pudong : she had gotten pregnant, then lost the baby and then got divorced.  Shortly after that, she moved to Germany and seemed happy there, judging from her Facebook photos and updates.

I didn't stay long at the wake.  She was busy entertaining visitors (there's only her mom & her sister) and a steady stream of visitors.  Her dad was well liked.  I liked him too - all the more after I reversed onto his Mercedes a lifetime ago with my little Dahatsu, and he didn't even bat an eyelid, waved me off.  

I got home positively depressed until I flipped to the day's reading and it was very comfortingly apt.

Eccl 3:1-11 
There is an appointed time for everything,
and a time for every thing under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them;

a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, and a time of peace