I woke up thinking about this song by Donovan:
On the sidewalk the people are hustling and bustling
They ain't got no time so
They think on the thing that will fill in the space in
Between birth and death.
Last year was a rough one, in many ways. As we get older we go to less weddings and more funerals. Less baby showers, more hospital visits to those in hospice.
Frankly. It sucks.
Last year I went to, I think Five services. The first as I stood on a lonely hill beside the casket of a friend who was taken so suddenly all of us were in a sort of shock. Tears were not there and I don't know if I ever properly cried for him True, I had lost touch with him, but he was one of those people you thought would always be around. Another sad case of "we should hang out" but never found the time.
There were several deaths that, although unexpected in a small way, these people had been quite ill and fought hard. They remain in my heart.
The one that will take, probably forever, to get resolved ( you never get over it, you just learn to live with it) is the suicide of a man I worked with and greatly admired. His work for our Union will resonate for generations of those who will never even know his name Gregory James West, and yet, he was in such agony - from what I cannot say- that he chose to end his life. Suicide does not end pain, it just transfers it to someone else. If you are reading this and in such pain, I want to tell you, you are loved, you are needed. Reach out. People you never realized who are in your life HAVE been there and want to help you.
The bright spot in my life was the hurried arrival of my grandson, Mason. Mason was a delightful shock to his parents, as they had just started the treatments, without much hope and yet.... Mason. His arrival in the world, so carefully planned by all of us was changed in an instant as he chose a much earlier date than scheduled. He's gonna be a pistol!
At one of the services, they kept repeating the new funeral cliche "Live your dash" the explanation is that there are several things on your tombstone, the date you were born and the date you died. It's the dash in between those dates that is the most important. So maybe today I will think on the things that fill in the space in between....
Well, when I read "Live your dash," my first thought was that Dash BUs..............and my former boss (and surrogate MOM!) Edris from Children's Literature used to tell me, when you leave work in the evening, your desk should be as if you might get hit by a Dash bus and never come back - ha, like THAT ever happened! All my desks ever were hot messes!
ReplyDeleteSo, I guess living MY dash would never have included having a tidy desk - and I just remembered that someone once said a clean desk is the sign of a sick mind.
Thank God, my sickness doesn't involves more fun stuff than atidy desk top!
Tom