The Value of Time is best Known with Lost Opportunities.

It is said that time is healer of everything. Deeply considering the statement takes us to consider a different disposition. If time is the healer of everything, the same time is the reason for everything that happens. It is tagged to virtually everything that takes place under the sun.

We regret for lost opportunities. We mourn over the words that were late spoken. We worry over lack of time for our families. Funny enough, we are most hurt when we remember the opportunities that slipped past our fingers.

It is at this point that we wish if we could go back just in time once again. With the wisdom and knowledge that we already have now, we will gladly embrace it and exploit every bit of it. But then we find it impossible to reverse time and can only live with the lessons like the case of one of my friends.

My friend had this girl he loved dearly. They had become friends by chance but it seems fate had it all to do with them becoming together even in marriage if possible. So, my friend would come and tell me how good this girl was to him and how much he liked her.

 Unfortunately, I wasn’t so close to the girl to such an extent of knowing what could have been transpiring in her mind relative to this friend of mine. All I know is that among the many people who thought these were a good pair from observation point of view, I was one of them.

So, my friend and this girl continued being very good friends. The only gist in the story is that this guy never took an initiative of asking this girl to be the girlfriend which ultimately would lead to a proposal and finally a marriage.

To him, it was improper for him to ask this girl to be a girlfriend leave alone a wife. Funny enough, he confessed a thousand times to me how loved her dearly and could love it if she became his wife. The fear of rejection and break of the friendship bond superseded the joy it would have brought had he asked for a hand in marriage and the girl end up accepting.

What he decided to do on the flip side was a bit odd. He’d hang in there until he was sure that this girl really would say yes should he decide to take things a step higher. The only problem is that he perhaps forgot to realize that he could only know by asking her and asking her was what he wasn’t doing.

As fate, in reality now would have it, they finished college and each went their own way. The young man remained in Nairobi and the girl went to a different town far from Nairobi. Luckily with technology, they kept in touch post college although they couldn’t meet often as before.

Still my guy was waiting for the opportunity when he would be too sure that this girl would accept his proposal. Up to this point, time had played in his favor for a long time now. And as you would guess, complacency was slowly creeping in. 

The danger with being too comfortable is that we end believing that opportunities are ours and that they will even sit and wait for us. In other words, we become too comfortable to the point folly gets into our heads that we can easily manipulate time to our own advantage.

Now as a good friend, I decided to push him to make a move and live to say that at least he tried. He promised he would act. Unfortunately, it was too late as I could come to learn of it later. Instead of just acting immediately, my friend went and started ‘planning’ on how to do it.

In the process of planning, one evening the lady called him. They exchanged niceties and pleasantries as good friends could and the lady broke the icing on the cake for that day. She had a WhatsApp group she wanted to add him in support of something she was planning.

He gladly accepted since she was a close friend of hers. On getting added to the group, my friend was mesmerized to discover it was a wedding planning committee. He bit his lower lip hard and wondered if he should exit but after wide consultation he decided to stay and do what good friends do; support their fellas in their endeavors.

So, what happened until my friend ended playing victim to and becoming a lesson to be learnt by other young men plus a confirmation that proverbs are wise sayings? He lingered with opportunity and lost it with or without being cognizant of that fact.

There is an African saying which says something to the effect that A man who hangs around a beautiful girl without saying a word ends up fetching water for guests at her wedding. My friends’ story reminds me of this sad reality every time I remember it.

Most importantly it reminds me of the words he shared with me recently about this story. He philosophically told me that to him, the encounter always reminds him the value of time. And not just any time, the value of time when an opportunity presents itself.

For those of us who have not lost dear opportunities, it might become very hard to understand what time means to us. But to the woman who had a miscarriage because she couldn’t get to the hospital in time deeply understands.

To the man who missed a flight by a minute, the understanding of time value becomes so clear to him as he sees the airplane on the runway taking off. To the person who lost a loved one because an oxygen cylinder just arrived two seconds late, nothing beats the value of time.

I could go on and on but of course, that time value gets appreciated best with lost opportunities will remain factual.

End.

Copyright@2021.