Here are some upcoming events that I would like to make everyone aware of...
Sunday, June 26, 2005: Picnic at our house! Mary, Scott and Aaron will be here from Oregon. We'll have a gathering to get all the Breiters together (and hopefully some Steckers too!) It will also be a belated graduation "party" for Dominic who will have completed eighth grade. Please let us know if you are able to make it!
Saturday, August 13, 2005: Rally For A Cure golf outing at Sunset Hills to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Always a fun time! Sign up sheets should be available soon out by Ed, or you can let us know in advance if you're interested.
Saturday, October 22, 2005: The American Cancer Society's Road America Walk/Run. (emphasis on WALK) The walk begins at noon. Always looking for new team members! If you're not interested in walking, fear not, I will most likely be hitting you up for a pledge. Here again, let me know if you would like to walk. This one is quite a ways off, but if it's on your calendar early it's easier to make the commitment. At least that's how it works for me.
Happy Sunny Sunday All!!
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Saturday, April 09, 2005
There are no words
A sister of a sister-in-law died this week. I didn't know her, but I know several members of her family. I don't even know any of them that well. But they're very kind people. They always ask about my health. They hug me like they know me well.
I think the fact that Wendy was only 44 years old made it an even more difficult time to spend at the funeral home. She is survived by her husband and two teenage boys. I shook their hands, I offered my sympathies. I wanted to say something healing and profound, as everyone does when they go through those lines. I wanted to say the comforting kinds of words that I would want spoken to Brian and Dominic if it were me laying in that casket. Nothing came. There are no words. I guess the mere presence of all those many mourners in one room has to "speak" the sentiments that have no nouns or verbs or adjectives or adverbs. There are so many interjections that come to mind, but somehow we deem them inappropriate at 'a time like this'. But first and foremost, in this impromptu English lesson, there is that one question word that looms so large...WHY? WHY Wendy? WHY now? WHY their family? WHY this way, so unexpectedly?
Wendy is fine. She's more than fine. She is living a glorious new life. When we die it is those who must continue on through life on this earth that feel the human pain. The sorrow is not for Wendy. The sorrow is for her family and friends. But I do feel sorry for Wendy in a way. Because she isn't here for the day-to-day living. She won't be here for major milestones in her sons' lives. If tears are shed in heaven, they must be shed over things like that. Things like knowing your son's heart is breaking because you aren't here for the birth of your first grandchild, for example.
Yes, our spirits forever remain within hearing range of those we love the most. But the communication lines between heaven and earth are not always as clear as we would like them to be, in my opinion. I believe that intuition is God whispering in our ear (much like conscience is). But you can't always trust intuition. That's due to static on the line. I'm sure the static is on our end though, never on God's end.
Where am I going with all of this? I don't know. I went to a stranger's funeral and it made me cry. That's not so unusual. But it used to be that when I went to a funeral I would personalize the event as to how painful it would be to attend the funeral of someone in my immediate family (parents, siblings, etc.). These days I find myself personalizing it as to how my own funeral may be.
That's all for now.
"May perpetual light shine upon her."
I think the fact that Wendy was only 44 years old made it an even more difficult time to spend at the funeral home. She is survived by her husband and two teenage boys. I shook their hands, I offered my sympathies. I wanted to say something healing and profound, as everyone does when they go through those lines. I wanted to say the comforting kinds of words that I would want spoken to Brian and Dominic if it were me laying in that casket. Nothing came. There are no words. I guess the mere presence of all those many mourners in one room has to "speak" the sentiments that have no nouns or verbs or adjectives or adverbs. There are so many interjections that come to mind, but somehow we deem them inappropriate at 'a time like this'. But first and foremost, in this impromptu English lesson, there is that one question word that looms so large...WHY? WHY Wendy? WHY now? WHY their family? WHY this way, so unexpectedly?
Wendy is fine. She's more than fine. She is living a glorious new life. When we die it is those who must continue on through life on this earth that feel the human pain. The sorrow is not for Wendy. The sorrow is for her family and friends. But I do feel sorry for Wendy in a way. Because she isn't here for the day-to-day living. She won't be here for major milestones in her sons' lives. If tears are shed in heaven, they must be shed over things like that. Things like knowing your son's heart is breaking because you aren't here for the birth of your first grandchild, for example.
Yes, our spirits forever remain within hearing range of those we love the most. But the communication lines between heaven and earth are not always as clear as we would like them to be, in my opinion. I believe that intuition is God whispering in our ear (much like conscience is). But you can't always trust intuition. That's due to static on the line. I'm sure the static is on our end though, never on God's end.
Where am I going with all of this? I don't know. I went to a stranger's funeral and it made me cry. That's not so unusual. But it used to be that when I went to a funeral I would personalize the event as to how painful it would be to attend the funeral of someone in my immediate family (parents, siblings, etc.). These days I find myself personalizing it as to how my own funeral may be.
That's all for now.
"May perpetual light shine upon her."
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