It was a pretty awful weekend. And the Monday that followed was definitely a rough one.
So by the time the afternoon was winding down and my work was finished, I was desperately in need of a recharge of some sort. My soul was screaming out for nourishment and so I decided on a sunset.
It wasn’t an easy decision, because my best sunsets have been with Brittany and the thought of doing one without her is a little hollow, in all honesty.
And also, my timing was all wrong. A quick check of my clock after I fed the kitties, I realized I would not likely make it across to the other side of Lake Parker in time to catch a sunset.
So, as I sat in the car, pulling off the driveway, I had reconciled myself to just going to an overpass over the interstate and trying to catch something there.
I was headed in that direction and I realized it was a clear sky and therefore not likely to produce anything that would make an interstate type sunset worth capturing, so I made another executive decision and decided to head for the lake, post haste.
It was a drive, I have to tell you. The stress of making it or not making it was palpable and each light that turned against me was greeted with an expletive, as was each and every driver that wasn’t racing down the road like me, or at the very least getting out of my way.
The fact that I am writing a blog about this is a clear indication that I got some pictures and indeed I did. The shadows were deep across the pier view that I would normally park at so I had to drive a quarter mile further up the lake to find somewhere where the sun was still visible.
I hope you enjoy … some of them came out really good. In my opinion, anyway.
I was only there for fifteen minutes or so before it was over but each moment was spent searching for Brittany, her hoop, her music, her happy smile.
Believe it or not, there was an unseen bird calling from a tree and his call sounded just like her name. It sent a chill up my spine.
Did I find her, I hear you ask. Yes, actually. I did.
But she wasn’t at the lake. She was within me, all the time. I just needed the sunset to help see her.
And this is what I was thinking about as I returned home. How we keep precious people alive inside us after they are gone.
We may occasionally forget we have them, but this is how they find eternal life. It is within the memories, hearts, and souls of those who love them.
I used the present tense there, because the love doesn’t stop when a person dies.
If anything, it gets deeper, because we have the added missing of their presence that we so casually took for granted.
We all lose someone and eventually they lose us, but the word “loss” is very much a misnomer. Because a love is never truly lost. It is simply waiting to be found.
Our love is sitting in a memory within us that only needs us to open the door and shine a little light in so that we can see them again.
For me yesterday, the light was the fading golden rays of the sun. But, it could be anything that we are able to associate with this soul. A song we remember sharing, a past moment spent together, or the distant sound of an unseen bird calling out their name.
Remembering someone special is how we visit with them when they have left this world. And because it is our remembrance that stimulates the visit, we can choose the manner in which we visit with them.
When we make that choice, it is sometimes difficult to look beyond the sadness of their last days, but it is important that we do. Our memories of a person can’t always be the sad ones.
We need to remember the happy times we spent together. The smiles they gave us and the joy we felt in their presence. We need to remember the love shared and the warmth it created within our souls when we needed their love.
This is what made them special to us, in the first place.
So, pause a moment today and open a door somewhere inside you. Visit with a love and enjoy them. Let a little bit of light in onto them, they may well be needing it today, anyway. Heaven knows, we all do.
… just a thought.
