Life Is Short

Life is short. How many times have we heard someone say that? How many times have we said or thought that? My sister called me this morning and told me my ex husband’s cousin died. I didn’t know her that well. I can’t say for sure that if I saw her on the street that I would have recognized her. She was 38, had at least one child that I know of and died yesterday in a house fire. She never made it out. I don’t have to know her personally to have her tragedy speak to me. I’m 33, just a few years younger and I know that even at what most people consider a young age that my life and your life is short. I just finished reading “Tuesdays With Morrie”. The book spoke volumes to me. It didn’t just speak to me, it shouted at me. It screams in my head even now as I write this. I think so many times why can’t things just work out and be good? Why can’t people get along? Why don’t people care? Why do some people not love you like you love them? Life is short. I can’t say it enough right now. We say that phrase, but do we really think about it? Do we really believe it? There is something troubling about the death of a 38-year-old woman to me. Life is fragile and there are no guarantees. I think about how so many people play games with others. You date people, they play silly games. Why is it so hard to be honest with other people? With ourselves? Then there are people who can’t deal with emotions and feeling. They escape. They resist. They run away. They deny. They are emotionally distant. They throw you away. It’s always easier to cut and run than to feel the pain and work through it. Life is short. Too short to throw people away. Too short to not take a chance. Too short to settle for an unhappy existence. Too short not to love and care about someone. Too short to not feel the fear and do it anyway. We know that once you make a commitment to care about someone you take a chance with your feelings. You risk that you will have to be vulnerable. In a recent episode of Grey’s Anatomy Meredith Grey said we are all damaged and we are all scary. Sometimes knowing that makes relationships easier. We all hurt and we all have things about us that make us wonder what someone would think of us if they knew. All of us are damaged and scary.

Life is short, you may want to…

Hold someone’s hand, make a phone call, drive the miles, send that card, say hello, tell her or him that you love them, tell someone it’s worth it, tell someone it’s ok, tell someone how you really feel, let someone in your shoe closet.