The River

The River

Everyone dies.

whenever i watch an old movie, i like to look on www.imdb.com to see all the films the actors have made and if they are still alive... or if they are dead, when did they die and of what. were they married? how many times? any children?

life is such a gift! countless authors have written about this short time we have here on this earth. but it doesn't really register until you wake up and realize that your own time here has an end.

you think about what will happen to my family? will they be close? or drift apart? will they even remember me? will they tell their grandchildren about me?

but that sounds like i'm only interested in my own destiny. and that would not be true. i like living in the town in which i grew up. i can go down each street and look at each house and remember all the people who used to live there.

i can remember all the store fronts from my childhood and all of the different businesses that have already come and gone. i remember the stories told to me by my elders.

i remember reading about an analogy to life. this person described life as an island in a river that we are all standing on. the river current is very strong.

as a child we are protected in the center of the group. sometimes one will slip through and fall into the river, but most survive.

as more and more are born, everyone is crowded a bit closer to the river's edge. and every month or so, an elderly person and sometimes one not so elderly will fall into the river.

until one day, you find yourself at the river's edge, waiting for the crowd to give you that final little push that will cause you to lose your footing and you, too, will fall.

i think of that whenever i get another obituary notice from our local funeral home.

you know that my father was a mortician as was his father and his uncle and his aunt before him. death has been a constant topic of conversation in my home when i was growing up. and the old people in my neighborhood were my best friends.

now i am grateful for each day that dawns regardless of the weather that most people like to complain about. another day with my dear husband. another day to hear from my children, my grandchildren, my dear sister.

the cycle of life includes death. and i am not afraid.