Teach Your Parents Well

PHOTO: NUSRAT DURRANI

"Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you"

CSNY

They were always there- in good times and bad, their wings providing shelter and unconditional love. My parents were the only place, the only embrace I could always return to whether I was wounded by life, or rejected by the world. Their sacrifices and selflessness are immeasurable.

But the cycle of life, the cruel hands of time spare no one, and so it must be that these celestial bodies we cling to will one day disappear. Until then, I hold my mother's hand and try to invoke the same tenderness and devotion she had for me all these years. This long and bittersweet goodbye will come for us all. 

Today you are on this side and tomorrow you will be on the other side of that dark corridor of life and death. Be gentle, be kind, be merciful to all who are leaving. Because one day very soon we will follow them on that unknown journey.