Daily Devotions & Wise Words

After another frustrating day at work, I drove home grateful to leave the rat race behind me. It’s a challenge to leave the subject of work off my blog on days like today. Yet, my vow to only mention work in passing forces me to concentrate on the rest of my life and appreciate what I have.

Struggling with writer’s block, I turned to my library shelves in search of wise words. Mark Twain? Been there. The Muppets? Been there. “Pooh’s Little Book of Wisdom”? Been there. Clearly lacking inspiration, I stumbled across a mini journal I bought two years ago called ”Daily Devotions”. I remember buying it in Savannah, Georgia at a time in my life when I thought such self-help books held the key to happiness. 

It’s funny, there are only two entries in that little “Daily Devotions” journal. The first on 24 April 2007 where my ’special prayer’ said, “May I find the strength and courage to tackle my three current demons and move forward.”  (Three?! Just goes to show you how hard it is to sometimes see the forest through the trees and what seemed like big demons can dissipate into dust with time..)

The second entry was on a plane on 15 August 2007 when I had cast my troubles away and concocted a crazy weekend trip to New York City to see Justin Timberlake in concert with KO. VIP tickets, 1 airline ticket, a new beginning. “This extravagant trip to New York  to see Justin Timberlake at Madison Square Garden with KO is the cumulation of a long difficult year – work and personally.  I like to think of it as a bonus treat to myself and the beginning of a new chapter of my life.  I have since lost my Grandma, yet, I know she is next to me.  This trip is a new beginning for me – and I can’t wait.”

That trip goes to show you how important it is to live life fully.  This month marks the one-year anniversary and sudden, tragic loss of my dear friend KO.  It’s days like today that I would call her from my car on the way home, always comforted by her wise words and rational side when I could find none myself.  

So it is in this spirit, and in tribute to KO, that I fill in my third entry in my “Daily Devotions’ journal for today, 6 April 2008: 

I am grateful for:

Having KO in my life, if even for a short time

Special prayers:

May her family, particularly her husband and brother get through this particularly difficult month. May family and friends continue to be by their side and may we all remember the happy times and hear KO’s wise words wherever we go.  She would want it that way.

Donations of the heart (acts of kindness):

Checking in with a friend today that I had not heard from for awhile

Goals and ideas for a better tomorrow:

Making time for a couple long overdue emails to other friends

Going to the gym! Five days last week, keep to task this week!  (Purely selfish – but I am determined!)

Notes:

One step at a time.

That’s what friends are for

It wasn’t a typical Saturday morning. My alarm shrilled at 7.00 AM closing out the chatter of birds, busily trading tips about spring nest building.

Tiptoeing out of the bedroom to not wake the husband, I stared into my wardrobe. What would be fitting to wear for a funeral for someone I never knew, but whose short life touched so many? Gray and black seemed a safe choice. A blue scarf thrown on for a dash of colour, I drove to the church in the shadow of a dark sky, rain plummeting down on the windshield.  

Having never been to a Belgian church funeral before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. My friends and I met in the parking lot to be in the company of familiar faces. We walked up the hill, through the town square and waited patiently to go through the church doors to offer our condolences.  

My eyes brimmed with tears as I looked into the mother’s eyes of my friend, a glimpse of her pain as she bravely put on a smile and thanked me so much for being there. When I hugged my friend (neither of us being huggers) and felt her appreciation for the moral support.  When she read a text in front of a church of some 300 people, bravely and purposely, on behalf of her family – a young, bright pint-size woman with impish humour and incredible strength and resolve, reminding me how proud I am to be her friend. Listening to the soloist on the balcony, clinging to the tissue-laden hand of the friend sitting next to me, as the sad lyrics conjured up memories of those, we too, had recently lost.

We walked out of the church one hour later, the clouds had cleared and the sun was suddenly shining brightly as if to say, “it will be okay.” The grey hearse and family pulled away down the cobblestone street and we watched from the sidewalk, musing about the experience. It had felt good to be there to support our friend and her family – even if we couldn’t take the pain of loss away.

“Coffee?” Yogurt said, breaking the silence as we looked at the crowd of people still milling in the street.

“Great idea,” Mini Cooper and I readily agreed, anxious to go inside and warm our freezing feet.

Our coffees no sooner arrived when my mobile beeped with a text message. My eyes welled up with tears for the fifth time that morning, as I read the message to the others:

“Thank you so much for being there. Made me feel better knowing friends were there.  Really felt supported.”

….For/in good times, and/in bad times, that’s what friends are for.  Carpe diem.