Life Interrupted By Life

This last week you could say that my life was very much interrupted. Last Wednesday (May 11) I got word that my grandmother had passed away, and while it wasn't totally unexpected news to me it did come sooner than I had expected it to. I had been enjoying a much needed mini-vacation from all the work I had been doing earlier this year and this news changed the non-plans I had quite quickly. Instead of me sitting back and enjoying my time off and catching up on some video projects for church that had been pushed to the back burner I was forced to make a 20+ hour drive up to Pennsylvania with my brother and spend my days running around helping complete everything that was necessary for the funeral. 


Now it would be very easy for me to be quite angry and upset at all this because my plans had been interrupted and I was forced to put in much more work than I had been planning to this past weekend, but I'm not. I'm glad that my life was interrupted like this because it forced me to reevaluate the direction that my life is headed and the some of the choices that I am making in heading that direction. My life being interrupted was a very good thing in this case.


 


As I listened to things that others were saying about her I wondered what others would say about me when I die. Would they have anything to say about me at all? Did I connect with and impact people enough for them to have anything to say about me? If so then what would they remember about me? Would they remember my accomplishments, or my heart, or both? I'd certainly like to accomplish quite a bit in my life, but I would rather be remembered for having a loving and caring heart than for accomplishing many feats. 


I thought about these things while driving back and realized that unless I have love then everything I do will be a waste. I could be the greatest person who ever lived and accomplish more than anyone else in the history of mankind, but if I did not love others then I would consider all my accomplishments useless [I'll cut this thought off here to avoid turning this into a philosophical discourse on love, but if you wish to discuss this more just leave a comment with your thoughts and/or question(s)].


So I concluded that I must always find a way to love others and I must be involved with and build relationships with others. But regardless of what has happened in my past or what will happen in my future I must always keep love in my heart, or I am no better than a beast.

"love refines 

The thoughts, and heart enlarges, hath his seat

In reason, and is judicious, is the scale

By which to heavenly love thou may'st ascend;

Not sunk in carnal pleasure, for which cause

Among the beasts no mate for thee was found."

      - Raphael to Adam from Paradise Lost, Book 8