A few observations:
Resurrecting these memories reminded me of just how often people really do deliver for each other with no expectation that their effort be rewarded. It gave me hope and the incentive to try to do the same.
I’m not a bucket list person. Most people don’t have that luxury. It is a privilege to enjoy the rewarding cycle of being curious, trying something new, failing a bit and succeeding. I still want to try hard things and to finish what I’ve started. Between about six-teen and fifty-five years old the “hard things” and the “had to” was a way of life. Now it is a choice. It never want to stop taking risks and trying.
I love the breaking of a glass at the celebratory end of a Jewish wedding… representative of life’s fragility and the reminder to us all to commit to pick up life’s pieces and try to create good. So, I conclude on a sobering story because life is messy and our world is a mess. Creating the chance to say thank you is my way of picking up a few pieces of broken glass.
Finally, when did we stop putting a space between sentences? There are some things I’m just incapable of evolving.
1993: Dear Chris, You literally took me in
Dear Chris,
Far too many find themselves without a safe place to sleep on a daily basis all over the world. I have only been in this circumstance for one day in my entire life. The backstory and circumstance are not important, but I am forever grateful that you opened your door without hesitation. You and your wife were so kind. While I was not a complete stranger, we were passing acquaintances and I’m sure it was awkward and even troubling to choose to say “yes” when you received that phone call.