Friendship

What is a friend?  A person who knows you and accepts you as you are.  I just lost a friend and neighbor this week.  He was a man that I enjoyed visiting with and respected for his kind and gentle nature.  A neighbor that I would see outside from time to time or would come knock on the back door.  He was a person that knew our routine as we knew his.  Day after day would go by and we may not even see each other but there was a strong sense of security just knowing that if anything should arise we were there for each other.  We tend to take advantage of those kind of friends and neighbors and suddenly they are there no more.  I am saddened by the loss of my friend and buddy. 

I always felt that you deal with the death of a person by the way they lived.  If they struggled with life and were never quite happy it is difficult to let them go but if they were peaceful and took life in stride it is easier.  We don't talk about death nearly enough.  We don't discuss with the person when they are dying how they feel or find out how incredible their experience might actually be.  We fear that if we discuss death that the thing we fear most will happen.  I think we probably miss out on some of life's richest esxperiences because of that fear. 

It is truly a gift to be able to go through the experience of death with a friend or loved one.  In fact, I believe it is one of life's most meaningful experiences.  I remember a friend of my mothers telling me that there comes a time when death is your friend.  How profound to accept and allow that wonderful transition into another realm.  Goodbye my friend and thank you for all the normal exchanges of the day.  I am grateful that our paths crossed in this lifetime.  Go with God.