🕯️: The Urgency of Living

🪶 Chapter 1 — The Quiet One

Maya was known as the calm one at work.
Composed. Polite. Precise.
She didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t rush. She followed the rules.

And that’s why Inès bothered her.

Inès laughed too loud. She spoke over people.
She forgot tasks, rolled her eyes at emails, sometimes even cried in the break room—then smiled like nothing had happened.

To Maya, it looked like chaos dressed up as confidence.

One day, when Inès missed yet another deadline, Maya calmly asked her to talk.

She chose her words carefully:

“I’m just worried... that the way you express yourself might be misunderstood. You’re risking your reputation here. People might not take you seriously.”

Inès didn’t respond right away.

She just looked at her, with tired, glowing eyes.

Then she said, softly:

“My father died three months ago.”

Maya opened her mouth, closed it. She wasn’t expecting that.

Inès continued:

“He spent his life doing everything ‘right.’ Always calm. Always serious.
He had eight months between diagnosis and death.
And you know what he regretted most?”

She smiled—but not with joy.

“Never dancing in public. Never saying ‘I love you’ first. Never laughing too loud.”

She paused.

“A human being, Maya, has maybe 4000 good weeks in a lifetime. And fewer if we count only the healthy ones.
Why would I waste mine pretending?”

Maya didn’t know what to say.
So she said nothing. Just nodded.

🌺 Chapter 2 — The Revelation

A few weeks later, Maya went on holiday.

When she came back, Inès was gone.

Not transferred. Not moved.

Gone.

An email from HR confirmed it:

“We’re deeply saddened to inform you that Inès passed away.”

No details. Just that.

But Maya remembered the way Inès had looked at her—tired, vibrant, urgent.

Suddenly it all made sense.
The loud laughter. The scattered focus. The wild joy.

Inès wasn’t being careless.

She was living fully—knowing her time was running out.

She hadn’t told anyone.

Because she didn’t want to disturb them.

🌸 Chapter 3 — The Shift

Maya stood in the break room, where Inès had once cried and laughed and spilled coffee everywhere.

She looked around.

Then she laughed—loudly.

And it felt strange.

But it also felt right.

That day, Maya didn’t correct a colleague.
She didn’t stay silent in a meeting.
She wore red lipstick.
She sang in the elevator.

She wasn’t trying to be like Inès.

She was just… trying to be alive.

🎯 Moral of the Story:

We often think we have time.
But one day, you’ll realize: you were already spending your life.
Don’t save your joy for later.
Live now. Live out loud.
Before the silence comes.