Last

You can't change the past, but you can change how you respond to it.

Sounds rather profound.  It wasn't meant to be, but it's so true.  As I work with family histories I find stories we wish to remember and cherish, and ones we wish hadn't happened and would give just about anything to undo them.  But we can't!  Even as we try to forget those nightmares, they remain a part of us, either as a reoccurring pain or the basis for a better future.

The past is long, billions of years; the future is also long, maybe more billions of years.  My personal past is more like 80 years and my future far less than that.  The present is the shortest; one moment it's the future and the next it's the past.  The present is what we experience.  It's now.  Even as I write this, the word that I just wrote in the moment that I wrote it can never happen again.  It's the last time that moment will happen.  That's where the title "Last" was born.

A year and a half ago, I celebrated my 80th birthday for the last, and only, time.  About three years ago was the last time I talked to Ken, Gail's brother, and his wife Sally.  They both died this year.  The same is true for Tina's mother.  More recently, last week, a long time friend breathed his last.  It's hard to accept the reality that I will never again talk to any of these dear people again earth.

It may be the last, but it's not the end.  It's been said before, probably many times in many different ways, when one door closes another opens, or when something ends something else begins.  Hence, I will live today and each day as if it's your last time to connect to others.  Happy Holiday Season!!