Ordinary Life

I started to write a post about loss (and legacy reels) back when my grandpaw passed away ...and then tried again recently when my uncle departed. Days got busy, I'm easily distracted and all of my attempts felt too frilly...too feely. What I'm really aiming to say has been said in countless ways so, maybe that is why I feel too antsy to pin the words down ( pen the words down?). It amounts to "Life is beautiful." though there are plenty of other worthy and valid things to be said about lives well-lived and legacies left behind. Like the following statements: "The Grand Canyon is large." "Niagara Falls is wet."  "There's gold in dem dar hills."  improvements could be made but the fundamental idea is present and accounted for. Sometimes that's the best one can do. So, here I am, sharing the video made in tribute to my uncle as a stand-alone excuse for where I've been lately, a picture-postcard from this other place for which ...

Back in January, I started a post about some things I've been thinking about ever since my Grandpa's funeral. Thoughts about life and death and all the moments in between...pivoting on the idea that a life of 80 plus years, distilled into the few scant minutes of a "legacy reel"  packs more punch than a shot of 80 proof whiskey. Days got busy, I got distracted and further attempts at plumbing those depths were abandoned. In March, my Unc le Roy passed away . He was 88 years alive.  I did not arrive in time to say good-bye to Roy but I spent a few hours that same day huddled with my family as the downpour of loss washed over us. Before I returned home, I was asked to help make a slideshow to be played during a celebration of Roy's life. It was being planned for what would have been his 89th birthday. I had just shy of two months to prepare. I see now that more than the privilege of being asked to help pay tribute, I was given a box of bittersweet morsels (with ass...

It is said that life is not a dress rehearsal,  but I've become convinced it may very well be the raw footage of a story yet told. The lead up to a highlight reel. And like the actor who never views his own work,  we do not see the final cut. ..at least not in a theatre this side of Heaven. I keep thinking about my grandfather. .. his funeral specifically.  An entire life concentrated within the walls of that old Nazarene sanctuary for 2 hours and a day. Sons and daughter told their tales,  some bickering afterwards about the tellings.