by Kathy Ruff
This past weekend I enjoyed time with people I see sporadically, people I rarely see and some I’ve never met. The class reunion for the ’70s brought together over 60 people who wanted to reminisce and reconnect with their pasts.
Last night I attended a funeral service for a high school alumni a year older than I. Marty and his siblings have been friends, fellow Hackelbernie bus riders and neighbors throughout the years. But like many of us, we seemed to have lost touch.
Davey’s eulogy brought both tears and smiles to those in the room as he spoke of what he understands…about the importance of family, acceptance and love.
For those who love, when loss happens, it feels as if you’ve been hit by a 2 x 4. The initial stun and confusion is replaced by denial, anger and pain. Regrets surface. “I should have spent more time…I should have told him…I could have tried harder…Why didn’t I…”
But when the initial shock subsides, that pain — or maybe the 2 x 4 — may open your eyes to what is important. Your priorities change. Those little squabbles or disagreements in the past seem trivial. You wish you could turn the clock back. You wish you had a little more time to talk, to visit. You wish you could let them know…
Along the path of life, the walls sometimes close in around us. We get too busy to talk with friends, too tired to visit, too engulfed in the trivialities that bombard us each day to focus on what really is important. Then something happens and a bridge stretches before us. We have a choice to decide whether to cross the bridge, continue on the way we’re going or turn around. The choice is ours, as it always was and will be.
What’s important to you? What’s your priority? Live those priorities today. You may not get another opportunity.
