Have the conversations.

Today marks the third anniversary of the death of someone very important in our family.  She is remembered today by family and friends in a very aching and painful way because her death was sudden and unexpected.  I read over and over, as people remember her on social media, that they wish they could just talk to her again, get a hug, hear her laugh.  Many had not been able to talk to her for far too long....and her death has left a very large empty place for them.

Have the conversations.  While we can.  If there is someone you have not talked with for awhile......change that.  Reconnect.  Call them.  Go visit.  We do not know how much time we all will have and if you can, have the conversations now.

My auntie came from California this week to visit her brother because she wants a chance to see him and talk to him now, while she can.  She got on a plane and came to town to have.....the conversations.  If his condition worsens and one of these days he takes his last breath here on earth, she will not regret the time she invested or wonder what they could have talked about in these last days/weeks/months.  She is having the conversations.

I hate every word I write of this post because it also applies to me.  I need to be having the conversations, too, before it is too late.  I need to not be too busy, or too wounded, or too whatever.......There are few things that are more haunting than regret.

I don't want to think about a day when people that matter to me are not here any more.  I would rather avoid those thoughts and move through my very busy days, as we all have them, and just tell myself there will be time later.......and not have the conversations now.  I don't want to have to become more present than I am.....but that is the issue at hand, I think.  To live presently.  To have the conversations.

Not everyone needs to hear from me today, or tomorrow even.  There are not unspoken things living in the balance with everyone I know, or you for that matter.  But.  There are important conversations that are not happening all around us.  Maybe, before it is too late and we are stricken with the grief of an annual eulogy, we should have more conversations now, while we still can.

This life that we are given to live......it is a very precious and treasured thing.  God is in the number of our days and in our story and in our journey.  We are not left alone to figure it out.  He is and can be the ever-present guide that whispers and nudges and urges and reassures us in our relationships with others.  Reach out to Him and have the conversations with Him too.  He longs to be with us where we are, and in all of the destinations before us.

Conversations with God are prayers, and they can be whispered, and spoken in silence, and sung in songs, and shouted with a fist in the air if needed......they are conversations that matter.  Have the conversations.