Miracles – C. S. Lewis (1947)
Grief is just love. It is all the love you want to give but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, as a lump in your throat, and in the hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go. (source unknown).
This year has seen the loss of so many stars from my era, those I have grown-up with as stalwarts of radio, television, and music. I seem to have reached an age where the demise of people from my past is inevitable however there just seem to be so many more gone this year, which I’m not sure if it is the case, or if it is just something that perceive as true.
We have also lost some very close friends this year … ones that we never expected to go so soon, or for some, in such circumstances, with two leaving us in the week running up to Christmas.
There is a debate as to the merits of knowing when your time is up … I’m not convinced that I would like that. Admittedly it would allow for preparations, to get things done before hand and to say final goodbyes, but I think it would also stop me venturing out on things if I knew I’d not be able to complete. Not knowing when it will all end allows life to be lived not only for the moment but to also make plans, and quite often it is the measures taken to make things happen that are just as much fun as the event. But if we knew when life would end we could miss-out on this kind of thing because we would know there would be no point.
I have a saying stencilled onto the wall of my study, Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain. . I never wait for the right time to do anything because I am convinced that if you think about things too hard, there is never a right time for anything.