Still Around

I'm sure you've noticed that I've been absent from here for a week. There were some pressing priorities.

There were two deaths in two days, one in my family - my father's aunt - the other a close friend the next day. My mind has been wandering and able to concentrate on only the most urgent tasks.

I knew my father's aunt only from a distance, as she lived overseas. My friend, though, was a rock of stability, strength, and humor over the years. I had known him for 33 or 34 years. In my younger years he was a father figure, but became a fellow adult later. He was the sort of person who came with a guarantee of a lifting up whenever we were together. And I'm not the only one. It's just the way he was.

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, with its review of Jesus' last week of life, was a reminder of the fickleness of life. Praise and rejoicing at the beginning of the week, betrayal, sorrow, confusion, the loss of a friend at the end of the week. Hearing the Passion read on Palm Sunday always makes me teary, but I felt even more so yesterday, feeling the parallel between the disciples losing their stability and strength and me losing mine.

My friend was my champion, a believer in me, my positive energy. Now, as the disciples did, I need to take what he taught me and carry it into the world.

Junie