Forever is Now

Ecclesiastes 3 is my favourite chapter of the whole Bible. The beginning reads:

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted…

The poetic list spells out the inevitability of the different facets of life. I think it is beautifully written but is dark and sad. I hate when people quote the twentieth verse in funerals: All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.

Life and death and all stages between them have become the reality of people reaching a certain age. I made a friend 20 years ago while travelling in the UK. He texted to tell me he was not feeling alright in May and that some laboratory results were not too good. An MRI followed by a biopsy in June was scheduled. He does not want any fuss in life, so I only wished him well, as I could not find other words to say.

On 7 July, I texted him to check if the examination results were OK. Two days later, he forwarded a text he sent to his spouse after his appointment with the surgeon for the results. The text reads:

Good news. Been for the results of my biopsy. Of course, I’ve got cancer (I think that was inevitable), but the good kind. No sign of any spreading to other organs and slow-growing cells. The consultant is suggesting active surveillance, testing every three months and an annual MRI, but other than that, shouldn’t need any other interventions. His other recommendation was: go home and have a glass of red wine. Surely, you’ll agree that it would be foolish not to follow the doctor’s advice. Cheers XX.

Two days later, his spouse sent me a photo of glasses of champagne and red wine. The next day, a photo of a Chinese restaurant for dim sum arrived. On the early morning of 13 July, he showed me a painting they bought while visiting a museum. It is a very dark painting.

I searched through the internet and found it in the artist’s catalogue. It is a large painting, and I think it is the best in the catalogue. It is titled “Forever is Now.” I like the title as much as the painting.

How wonderful it is to enjoy every moment as if it is something we want to own forever. The painting reminds me of some photographs I took in an early morning during the COVID-19 pandemic on a beach. I was amazed by the beauty of the ever-changing sand patterns. We live in a world of inevitability and uncertainty, but every moment is fantastic in its own right, only if we treasure it.

In the following days, I continue to receive photos of them having a BBQ in the garden, visiting museums, having breakfast at the college dining hall of Oxford University, enjoying concerts…. Surely, they are taking life easy.

On 24 July, the painting arrived and was put up on the wall. It is a smaller version with a similar motif. He told me that “Forever is Now” is too big for their sitting room, so they got the smaller version of it. It is titled “Timeless Hope.”

I think “Forever is Now” and “Timeless Hope” are both fabulous.

Don’t you think so?