Last week, our daughter shared with us that a high school friend's mother passed away suddenly ... well, it actually took about a week, but it was still sudden. There was no indication that she had been ill as far as we can tell, until this event, some freakish unexpected illness. Mom was there last week and gone next week. As my daughter read about this to us on her Facebook, she started to cry. I started to choke up a bit and said, "Let's make the best of the years that we all have together, okay?" Life is short, no matter how long it is. Too short to hold grudges, cast blame on others for our unexplainable insecurities and cause years of unnecessary separation, too short to not stop in to see that friend or single parent or neighbor we often forget to pay attention to. How about those elderly around and among us? How lonely they can get! "Life is too short to major in the minors," one of my mentors once said.
I posted what follows below on the kitchen refrigerator for my family not too many years ago. The kids were teens at home (one is still at home but will be out of the teen years next week). I never did get much response from them ... obviously a time when their minds were on vacating the premises in one way or another. But, I thought it was a good thought to live by, so I posted it this week again, and thought I'd share it on my Facebook Wall. (I think I may have gotten the core of this from something I read online, but I don't remember where.)
"One day a woman's husband died, and on a clear, cold morning, in the warmth of their bedroom, the wife was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more. No more hugs, no more special moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to chat, no more 'just one minute.' Sometimes, what we care about the most gets all used up and goes away ... never to return before we can say goodbye, say 'I love you.'
So while we have it ... it's best we love it ... and care for it ... and fix it when it's broken ... and heal it when it's sick. This is true for marriage ... and old cars ... and children with bad report cards and dogs with bad hips and aging parents and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.
Some things we keep -- like a best friend who moved away or a classmate we grew up with. There are just some things that make us happy no matter what.
Life is so important, like people we know who are special ... so we keep them close!"
You're a Keeper!
Love,
Dad
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