Monday, April 12, 2010

Love is best when shared.

Recently I wrote a message on Facebook--Reader's Digest version--I wrote about showing love to those you may love and not waiting until it was too late for the person/or persons to feel it and be able to respond to it. Ironically no one responded to me on Facebook, but I received many e-mails instead. One follower of my blog (thank you Mr. Eric Dennis for your support and for giving me your permission to share your story) said that when he read my words he was in the midst of a twenty year argument with his oldest brother that he longed to settle. And reading my words and the subsequent events in his life really drove the point home.

Shortly after reading the posting and deciding to call his brother, he received a call from his sister-in-law requesting that he come visit his big brother before it was too late. His brother was dying from cancer that had spread from his liver to his brain in a matter of months. Now the sad part to all of that was that he didn't have a clue that his brother was even ill, let alone about to die. No one in his family--and they knew--bothered to inform him since everyone was aware of the bitterness shared between the two brothers. Eric rushed to be by his brother's side, but by time he arrived his big brother had expired.

So standing over the graveside after they lowered the casket into the ground he finally was able to talk to his brother and say the things that laid on his heart for all those years. The only problem with that as he said in his e-mail....it was a one-sided conversation.

I could go on and on about giving flowers to the living. But would it make a difference? Absolutely! Sometimes people need to hear, read or see certain things in an analogical kind of way for it to have any effort on them. It can make the pill of one's own actions a little easier to swallow.

Here's a fact--life can go by way too fast. Almost as if it's a large fully loaded semi plowing down a winding hill without brakes. During our lives we will (hopefully) encounter people that deserve and seek our love and some that will take advantage of it. For now we'll concentrate on those that we truly love. Be it family, friends, lovers or others. The greatest blessing-- I'm certain that we all can agree--that came from the heavens and is written about more than any other subject on the planet is love. Love is the beat of the heart. Without love the heart is nothing more than an organ.

To repeat myself, but it bears repeating. If you love someone let them know it through your actions and your words. As Gladys Knight said so eloquently at the end of her show my wife and I attended when a fan gave her flowers, "Thank you for the flowers and yes give them to me while I'm yet able to enjoy them."

Give your flowers of love to the living so they can enjoy it because standing over a graveside saying kind words might soothe the living--it does nothing for the deceased.