Life

To build on my last post, I've noticed something more in recent.

Life seems to take any and all chances it can to snatch people away from us.

Whether it's to try us, to test us, by chance or by choice, or even by fate, it happens.

If you're lucky enough to have a chance to say goodbye to the loved one before they go, and can tell them how much you loved them, count your blessings.

If not, make sure you tell everyone you love, how much you care about them as often as you can.

-Ensure you cuddle your pets at every chance you get, as they're part of your family.
-See your friends at every opportunity. And make more whenever you can. Even if you only have a few close ones that you want to spend time with, make sure you do that, and see them often. Friends are equally as important as family, and life would probably be far worse without them.
-See/ring your grandparents as often as you can. They're amazing, and they send you chocolate and money at Christmas, Easter, and Birthdays. And you'll miss them when they're gone.
-Keep in touch with your wider family. Your cousins, your Aunts and Uncles, your distant relatives. They're still your family, whether you get on with them or not.
-Try your best to forgive your siblings. They're incredibly annoying, but remember you annoy them just as much back, and at some point in your life, they may be all you've got.
-Love your parents. Really. They gave you life. However you were conceived, you've got them to thank for your existence, if nothing else.

Appreciate everyone and everything around you. You never know when it all might be taken away. This message is repeated over and over again, and it still can't be stressed enough.

And so, I'm becoming more and more aware of how little time I've actually got on this Earth, and how the time I do have here needs to spent with my loved ones, enjoying the time I do have to the fullest extent.

Celebration

So this post is a set of reflections after going out on a boozy night, for a good friend's birthday, after much drinking, laughing, and admiring attractive women, etc.

The way home was less a yellow brick road, more a two mile trek of cycle tracks, chavs and mopeds, however, I was accompanied by another good friend, so made do.

We chatted, discussed the good bits of the night, the awkward bits, the stupid things I'd said, and so on.

I reached my house, awkward man hug goodbye, and to bed I collapsed.

Next morning, and my hangover cure; I spent 45 minutes in the shower, reflecting on the drunken dreams I'd had in the night, and going over events, thinking how she was hot, she wasn't, he was nice, he wasn't, and how "Oh, why did I say that!? And maybe if I'd said that, I'd have been funnier, and maybe she'd have fancied me, actually, wait, I'm not even sure I fancied her, anyway." and so on. You know, normal thoughts one has about the night before...

Somehow though, my head managed to worm it's way round to an old friend of mine who was a Jehovah's Witness.
I remember, him having a birthday, and telling us he didn't celebrate it, because it was part of his religion not to.
As I understand it, Jehovah's Witnesses are a very strict.

Now, obviously, after having such a nice time the night before, the idea of not celebrating a birthday at all, is an alien concept to me. I'm not going to go into the belief side of things, for want of debate or another, I don't know anywhere near enough about the religion. Hell, I'm still not sure whether they're part of Christianity or not...

But I'll just jump straight to my point.

They don't celebrate birthdays!!!!

For a start, as a child, had I been a Jehovah's Witness, I would not have got this:

(Space Precinct. Best show ever. My friend broke the door off. My brother never forgave me...)

I don't understand, how in this world full of misery, and I mean filled up to bursting with hate, murder, rape, peadophillia, war, crime of all sorts, something stops us celebrating birthdays? And Christmas. And Easter.

We need any excuse nowadays to see our friends, our family, to go out and meet new people, not less reasons!
We need any excuse to have a good time.
We need any excuse to show the good side of human nature.

Hell, we need any excuse to show love.

What I love about most religions, most of the time, is that they bring people together! At weddings, at birthdays, bar/bat mitzvahs, etc. some could be religious events, others might not be. Others might be a religious event being celebrated by non-religious people, but know what? That's fine too.

People having a good time, laughing, rejoicing, knowing that someone has lived another year, been born, been christened, that two people are about to spend the rest of their lives together, that someone's just become a man/woman, that someone's got a new house, whatever the occasion is. Celebrate.

"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."

-Agatha Christie