The Lunch I Couldn’t Attend

By jarlat Uche opara

The invitation came from the blues. I wasn’t expecting it, even when I had longed to see the person that invited me.

Poised not to miss it for any Gold in the world ,no matter the karat. It wasn’t about the food, the drink but rather more about a sincere and decent sense of brothehood which I wanted to honour. Sadly I couldn’t make it due to unforseen life exigencies.

The thought of not honouring the Lunch Invitation wasn’t funny. However, it left me with many lessons, resonating with what life inadvertently could throw at one in one full swoop. Life can be funny and at same time harsh. In one breath it gives one rib cracking jokes, so hirarious one wouldn’t but feel the bliss of the breeze of the goodside of life. It can in another breath give one a soul tearing circumstances that would unsettle ones mind.

When the invitation came, it brought joy and excitement though shortlived because the reality of not attending came with a feeling very unsavoury. Such is life, two sides of a coin. .

Everyday one wakes up not knowing which of the side would flip for one to embrace and which side would flip at dusk.

Like how the invitation for that lunch came without me expecting it, many have had either a rough shod or bliss moment with life without expecting it. I had the opportunity to grace the event, but situation made it impossible. The truth is, many would have wanted it, in dire need of food, free to attend, but the invitation wasn’t extended to them. What an irony of life!!

Life situation is a wind, it blows where it wants to , it comes with many uncertainties. It may dawn with brightness and dusks with gloomy and painful circumstance. It may equally dawn with pains but dusks with smiles. Until one understands life in this manner, it would be a mere wind chase thinking it would be all rosy without pains or all pains without rosy moments in life.

Either the painful or sweet moments of life, it comes unexpectedly. Nobody has control over life situaton but one can only have control over how one chooses to react or responds to it.

The lunch has come and gone. Not attending, no matter how I desired to, was beyond me , but what wasn’t beyond me was how to react to it. Either I continue to salivate about it or move on with the consolation that more opportunies abound ahead.

When life happends to you, your choice on how to respond to it determines the effect it would have on you. At all times be positive no matter the situation one finds oneself in , good, bad and ugly. Your reaction is your asset, the only thing you have control on, every other thing about life is beyond your control.

To the host of the lunch that I missed, it was a great honor and I don’t take it for granted. Though I missed it, but the miss made me to think deeper about what life is. My gain too for missing the lunch. I appreciate you most profoundly.

Life is full of opportunities for lunch. Some may come to you, some you may not be fortnate to be invited to . In some cases it may come on a platter but circumstance of life would take it off ones grip, watching the opportunities slip off ones grip without helping the situation.

We won’t know the number of lunch invitations people miss due to personal life situations. We live in a world of varied opportunities, to those who have access to such lunch invitations and attend to them , life is good. To those who get the invitations but situations prevent them from attending( near success syndrome) life could be seen as unfair. But those who never got such invitations, life is a bitch. Though our experinces are different, the truth is no condition prevails forever.

Make the best out of what life throws at you. The best survival insinct if you ask me

Jarlathuche@gmail.com