A woman I know died very suddenly and unexpectedly last week. It is the second time I've had a friend die without warning. The last time I saw her, I was out walking the dog and she rode past me on her bicycle and called out a hello. She was always on the go, busy with her children, involved in life. I didn't know her well enough, but everything I did know about her was likeable. She was young and vibrant, and she wasn't finished yet.
The conflicts and worries and stresses of this life really aren't that significant, you know, when you stop to think about it. It can all be gone in a moment, the unfinished projects, the half-read books, the unsaid apologies, the secretly-nursed hurts, the triumphs and acquisitions, the carefully-built bank account, the reputation, the granite countertops. The things we get caught up in -- paint colours, career choices, waist sizes -- don't matter in the end. For all of us, what matters will be who we have become as people, what we have learned, and how we have loved and served others -- those are the only things we take with us.
I watch leaders of the world get caught up in ego and posturing and flexing of muscles, and I just roll my eyes. We are hurtling through space on this teeny tiny speck in the universe. None of us are driving it. None of us can control it. None of us will be here for long. And yet we still argue and shove each other around on this speck and forget we're just plummeting through space for a very limited time. Surely there are better ways to spend what time we have.
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