Yesterday I found out that someone I know passed away from cancer. It had been a long battle for her but it finally took her. She leaves behind her family, a husband, and 2 sons. Although she was ready to end the battle and was at peace about it, from personal experience, I know that her family felt differently. Yes, they are grateful that her suffering is over but that does nothing to fill the void she's left.
People die in life. There's a death sentence for all of us and although we may be fine with that, it's those who we leave behind that have to hold on to that emptiness where we once were. And, then there's everyone else; our friends, extended family and acquaintances. They feel the emptiness in various ways. If they've lost someone in their immediate family they can empathize with how you're feeling. If they haven't, even though they say the right words, they really don't understand. That being said, they have to continue to live their own lives, with their own families, doing their same routines, because that's life for the living. Your world stops for a time and theirs continue on. You wish yours would go on, but it doesn't, at least for a while. Over time, they think about you less as their lives take over but you never forget.
Life is meant to live. As I mentioned earlier, we all have a death sentence. How many of us are living the lives we want to live? How many of us are doing what we want to do? How many of us are working during the week, and then working around the house on the weekends, week after week, month after month, year after year? How do we break that? How do we get to the point where we have time to really live the life we want to live? How many of us are battling our own battles with something that occupies all of our time, not letting us do what we really want to do? Is that our death sentence?
