Day 242 – Gifts

Today I ran into an old Coast Guard colleague at the elementary school.  He has two young girls and I had heard that his wife was really sick.  When I asked him how she was doing I was a little bit embarrassed, but mostly sad when he said “She died about six weeks ago.”  We talked a little bit about how he and the girls are doing.  He said the Coast Guard, neighborhood, schools, friends and family have all been very supportive.  I was still amazed at his strength.  If I had just lost Doug (as annoying as he can sometimes be), I don’t think I would have been able to leave the house after six weeks much less be talking about everything. 

I usually remain relatively emotionless (Doug says "cold") when I hear about people passing.  Guess I kind of view death as just a part of life, but for some reason, this hit me a little harder.  (I spent the car ride home from the school sobbing).  So I’m going to try to remember that today is a gift. So is tomorrow.  So was yesterday (even if the kids were poops and I screamed at them most of the day).  I just read somewhere (I think it was actually a quote from some trashy entertainment magazine.)  It said, “Today is the best day of my life and I hope tomorrow will be the same.”  Don’t know who said it and certainly not easy to actually live like that, but a state of mind worth striving for.