I re-pinned this last week from Karrie, and I think I gasped when I first read it:
Kinda sad and spooky, right?? But so moving and so true. Life is BUSY, and time moves so quickly, and it’s SO easy to imagine that the people we love will be here forever. I know I do… And in a heartbreaking coincidence, about 2 days after I read that quote, Matt and I were standing at the calling hours for the beloved father of a friend of ours who had just died suddenly and unexpectedly, and who had died far too young. As we inched up the receiving line, I watched the slideshow of this man with the kindest eyes and calmest smile proudly holding his new grandbabies, and watched pictures fade in and out of him walking his daughter down the aisle, and of what looked like a beautiful life surrounded by all the people he loved… and I kept thinking how I had just been at his daughter’s house the week before helping her pick out wallpaper for her dining room, and that no one could’ve known then that their lives were about to change forever. I realize it’s not a new concept, but it is always shocking when terrible things like that happen to witness how life can pivot SO quickly. Things change in the blink of an eye. And when we stepped up to pay our respects to his wife of 36 years – who looked beautiful but exhausted – she talked to us in an almost bewildered but matter-of-fact way about how you JUST never know… and that we all talk about how grateful we are for one another, and for what we have in our lives, but that things move so quickly and we are all so busy-busy-busy that you JUST never fully grasp how precious it all really is, until it’s gone. I couldn’t believe how poignant her words were, and how affected I was by them. I did not stop squeezing Matt and Gus all weekend, and my parents are gonna get a 32-year old lap-sitter when they see me next.
So, sorry to start today on such a morbid note, but GYAH. Hug everyone you see this week, call your Mom & Dad, go visit your Grandparents, stop worrying about sh*T that doesn’t really matter, and love everyone you know as hard as you can.
xoxo,
I was 23 when I got the call that my mom was on the brink of death. Every day I’m given with her is a gift. I don’t take a second of it for granted. That is how I show my gratitude to God for giving her nine lives. Thank you for this post. Hugs to you, my friend.
You could not be more right with this post. Thank you and so sorry about your friend’s Dad.
Yesterday a Burris Alumni,Vicki Tippenhauer passed away at the age of 55 years old. I have been thinking your thoughts,people pass away at any given time. No one has a guaranteed place on earth. Make the best of every day and treat people with kindness,it might be their last or yours.