Take the time

Warning: Preachy Post Below

I attended a funeral of my friend's
brother yesterday and it ignited all those feelings we have at every
one of these sad occasions. Time to buckle down and become better
people. Volunteer more time, be more generous, take life less
seriously, you know all of those things.

I felt a little strange
making the decision to attend the funeral. I was not close to this
brother,
I don't know that I would even consider myself a close to this "friend"
but after losing someone close to me I wanted to show
him some kind of support.

It was so poignant to me when I say people at
my mom's funeral that I knew weren't there for her, they were there for
me. Turns out, dead people don't care if you come to their funeral,
they were too busy to make it so you go for yourself or the family. Both important legitimate reasons.

So this is what I ask (and preach): Take the time to mourn with people. I
remember thinking that I just wanted the world to stop for 1 minute and
feel despair with me. It is so hard that something as tragic as death
is so common and therefore goes unrecognized by the rest of the world.

Elliott's cousin died in a motorcycle accident a few
years
ago and at the funeral his aunt said something that effected Elliott
enough that he has mentioned it to me numerous times; "be kind to
everyone you
talk to, you never know whose son died that day".

There is nothing that can fix what breaks when you lose someone but to feel like
others have made an effort to mourn with you and acknowledge your loss
is
a comfort. To this day, the thing that makes me happiest about my mom
is how much fun her funeral was. The whole event was a littlerowdy for
some (the boring people) but it was a perfect reflection of her
community. Laughing through tears was her formula and to celebrate that
surrounded by friends,Romans, Countrymen and angels was amazing.

Moral of the story: Take the time to go to funerals, they are important.

Oh, and leave your effing cell phones at home.