I remember.......

Sitting on the back deck.  Calm.  Serene. Then, a horrendous shrieking noise coming from the woods.  Continued. It was a horrendous sound for some time.  Really difficult to listen to from afar, imagine being in the center of it all. Then, silence.  Nature had happened.  That bastard.

Traffic.  Traffic whirls.

Loss.  One less car.

Traffic still whirls.  Nature, that bastard.

Loss affects us all.  I cannot, however, fathom the loss of a spouse.. I cannot fathom the loss of a child.

Traffic still whirls.  Nature, that bastard.

Life is seemingly about love and hurt, with day-to-day in between.  Life rolls pretty darn good, day-to-day with love front and center.  Loss can and does happen, then it's day-to-day with a large dose of hurt.

There are certainly those way more qualified than I on how to respond to that, how to assist.. The preacher, the counselor, God, the Bible, a best friend... I know of nothing more than one foot in front of the other.

When loss has happened, for the short term, we, in traffic, may pickup the phone and call that loved one we shoulda called long ago. We make that promise to remind our self "it can all change in a heartbeat", make plans on how we're gonna do this, do that, differently. We do, then day-to-day can get in the way.

We absolutely don't take people for granted, we just forget the day will come they're no longer there any more.

We cannot beat ourselves up when loss happens.  "I should have told them..... I wanted to tell them how much I valued them and never did..."  Sometimes even "we were kinda on the outs, I feel HORRIBLE" happens.  Can't allow it to make you feel horrible.  Life, nature happens. There is no perfect man or woman.

Yesterday, someone was basically pleading online "my child had a wreck, they're fine, but the car's frame is bent and we didn't have collision, what can we do?"  Not much.

Same in life.  We get bent out of shape.  WHY?  I allow much, to bend me out of shape.  When half of America spews hate for half of America (and yes, I'm aware that goes both ways.)  Arrogance.  I allow that to bend me out of shape.

Typing down a stupid road, but it's a road that happens nonetheless.  Yeah, traffic.

I have a buddy. A good friend, but I can't tellya his middle name, what year he graduated, his mom or dad's name, all of his sibling's names.. yada.  Still, a good buddy.  EVERY time he sees me, or any of the gang where we occasionally gather, it's "I love ya man"

Traffic whirls.

I should have this on 'auto-paste' (for ease of copying and pasting) because I've typed it hundreds of times - I am not preaching.  I write to me, for me, hitchhikers welcome.

We can certainly tell people how thankful we are they are our friend... your friendship means so much... We can also forget to.

All too often we hear "I never told him/her I love 'em."

Well, now we can.

Day-to-day with hurt will go on to infinity, and yes, seemingly day-to-day with love will never end.  Sadly, it does.  Nature can be a bastard.

Traffic would go smoother.  Waking up would be a tad easier... if we simply knew, the last thing we said to someone was "I love ya."  It's "you'll never know how much I appreciate your friendship"...."I feel so honored to be your friend"... "I'm glad we're together and got to do this today" ALL ROLLED UP INTO ONE.

I am aware, saying "love" is very difficult for some, and that's ok.  Simply express it the best you can with your smile.. your eyes.. your handshake... fist bump..

Love ya