Every Forty Seconds

 

Have you ever thought about what you’d do with every forty seconds of your life? 

I mean, on every new year’s eve, we sit down to pen our plans for the year. 

Not for the next day, nor the next hour or minute. We rarely get to that kind of detail. 

We plan for the next three hundred and sixty-five days. 

Even on for the leap years, we forget we have an extra day. To live. 

That’s how much we don’t go to details. How would you have thought of forty seconds.

What happens when we don’t realize our dreams? What happens when something prevents you from achieving your dreams?

 

What happens when your business partner is diagnosed with cancer? They cancelled their medical cover. You helped them do it. You’re the only help they know. 

What happens when your name doesn’t feature on the pass list? What happens when your best friend’s name doesn’t appear on the same list? 

What happens when the heavy rains cause a landslide and buries the love of your life alive?

What happens when there’s a power outage and your patient dies because the lab diagnosis delayed. Is their blood on your hands?

What happens when the branch your daddy asked you to cut it off falls on your mommy and pins her to heart death only because you didn’t cut it? Is her blood on your hands?

What happens when your four-year-old daughter in her kitchen adventures accidentally pours boiling water on her body only because for just a minute, your eyes were off her. And now she’s dying on your weak arms. “Mommy” is the last word she says. Does that mean her blood is on her mommy?

What happens when the love of your eternal life leaves you for infinity? Does your one-year plan expire when that happen?

 

Everybody plans. Some people realize their plans. Most people don’t. 

The whole world plans to live every year with good success.

The world plans to see the following day.

Unfortunately, most people don’t. the world loses eight hundred thousand of its population every year. 

Every year, the world fails to realize eight hundred thousand of its plans. 

 

Every forty seconds, the world loses in another plan, the plan to see one more human being to the following year.

Every forty seconds, someone dies.

They die a death they shouldn’t die.

They die a death they could have escaped.

Every forty seconds, a life is lost.

Every year, eight hundred thousand lives are lost.

Every forty seconds, a life is lost to shame, guilt, rejection, hate, fear.

 

We don’t lose people to suicide, or suicidal attempts.

We lose them to shame.

When your friend was not on the pass list, they stopped talking. They can’t talk, they can’t think right.

They’re coping. You think. 

They aren’t. Slowly, shame creeps in. Slowly, confidence fades away. And slowly, you lose them.

They don’t have the strength to share their fears, you have the strength to erase their fears.

 

You have to do it. You can do it. Show them they can do it.

Your friend is dying out of guilt. 

They believe their patient’s blood is on their hands.

She believes her baby’s blood is on her hands.

He believes his mommy’s blood is on his hands.

 

Why?

Because that’s what the southwards winds blows into their minds.

That’s what the morning sunrise arouses in their blood. Guilt!

That’s what the spring water sprouts in their hearts. Hatred!

Today, they think the world hates them.

Tomorrow, they’ll start hating themselves.

 

Why?

That’s all they know. It was their fault.

But this is what you know. It’s not their fault.

Every forty seconds,

You lose a friend, a colleague, relative; and if not, a fellow human being, created in His image and likeness, just like you are. 

 

Why?

Because every forty seconds, you are too busy to show love.

Every forty seconds, you so much in a hurry, you can’t have a proper conversation.

Every forty seconds, your ‘how are you’ is a duty and not care.

Every forty seconds, someone dies because nobody is talking. And those who talk, talk wrong.

Someone dies because “I’m praying for you” is the new gospel.

Every forty seconds, hopelessness reigns when there is hope.

 

Guilt reigns when there is forgiveness.

Condemnation reigns when there’s redemption.

Coldness reigns when there’s warmth.

Every forty seconds, hatred reigns when there’s love.

Every forty seconds, fear reigns when there’s courage.

Every forty seconds, death reigns when there’s life.

But today, love reigns. After today, life reigns.

 

Why?

Because every forty seconds, we start a conversation, not only to fulfill a duty, but to show love and erase hate.

To embrace and erase rejection.

To show forgiveness and erase guilt.

To show courage and erase fear.

Today, we redeem the condemned.

Nobody is too condemned to be redeemed.

 

So; go out there and show someone that they’re worth the next forty seconds and the next minute, the next hour, the next day, and the next day, week, month and year.

Go out there and save someone from committing suicide.

#40seconds

#WorldMentalHealthDay

#WorldSuicidePreventionDay 

Written by Dorcas Kimeli, a medical lab. scientist.