My Life Till Now...

"My Life Till Now" was the title one of my best friends made for a note on facebook which described, well, her life until now. On Tuesday, you see, her mom died after a long and hard fought battle with lung cancer. I'd been praying for her for months (along with many others), and she was finally relieved of her suffering. I want to start by sharing an excerpt from Kristen's note, because I think it's really well put and it brings me several different forms of hope. She writes:

[ All I can say is "Thank you". Thank you Mommy for being such a wonderful, gentle, selfless soul. You've taught me so much in the 21 years I've known you. I hope that eventually I can be just as good of a servant to others as you were to me and our family. Thank you to all my friends; you've been there for me to cry to, vent to, run to, and be frustrated with life with. Without you this would have been much, much, much harder; not that it has been easy by any means. Also, thanks to people I'd never imagine to care about me so much. You've latched on and never let go, and for that I am so grateful. Lastly, I thank God. My peace and strength ultimately comes from Him. From day one I've been praying for peace in this situation and he's granted that to me through each and every tial, including this one. Without Him, I'd be a total blubbering mess, but with his help and guidance I know it'll be alright and I'm only a half blubbering mess.

Mom, I'll see you later. Everyone else, please keep in mind that the people you love are finite and give them a massive hug while you can. ]

Beautiful, no? So was the funeral, which I attended in Berryville, Arkansas on Saturday morning. The service was fine, but mostly I was just overwhelmed with joy at the thought of being able to be there for a friend in her time of need and repay her a bit for the love and kindness she's showed me.

It makes you think though. We're all going to die. Everyone we ever have known and ever will know. It's tough to deal with, but necessary, I believe, if we're going to live authentically. I know I called up my parents that day and told them I loved them. I even made a trip home a few weeks ago because of this whole situation just to hug my family. How do you deal with death? Does it make you let go of your attachment to life or make you grip it all the more?

Anyway, I've cleared my head a bit in the past few months and I think I'm ready to start making my way back as a writer in the blog-o-sphere for a while. I've got some thoughts I need to get some feedback for, so look for me once more!