Every Hug and Every Handshake – Now I Get it!

I’m not sure any of us can say that we fully understand life and death. We all have our own beliefs and that’s okay, but that’s all they are – beliefs. What is life all about, and where do we really go when we die? I don’t let myself think about it too much because it’s confusing and sometimes scary. I take comfort in my beliefs and it keeps me from freaking out.

All my life I preferred to avoid people who have just lost a loved one. Not always, but many times. I’d tell myself things like: I’m not to bother them. I’ll make them sad if I mention their loss. I don’t need to go to the wake because they have enough people there, and we’re not even related. I won’t go to the funeral because I hate funerals, they make me cry. (You could say that’s selfish.) I’ll send a sympathy card instead. (And then forget to send it.) I always thought if I lost someone close, I wouldn’t want to see lots of people. I wouldn’t want them to say anything, or I wouldn’t care if they went to the funeral or not.

Well…my eyes have been opened! How wrong I was about death and funerals; how wrong I was to think all those things.