“He was such a good guy!”

“Man, I really loved the Times we had together”

“She made me feel so wonderful”

Those are only a few of the examples that we might hear after someone dies.

I HATE IT WHEN I HEAR THEM!!!

Oh, I don’t hate the sentiment, I hate that they’re being said after someone dies. Check social media after a friend dies, listen to the conversation around a table when the news hits and worse yet, I am particularly bothered when I hear them at a visitation or wake. I mean after all, saying something like  “Here’s all the things I should have said when they were alive but didn’t say” doesn’t make for a very good eulogy, now does it!?!

I’m not against saying nice things about people after they’ve moved on, I’m against NOT saying them to the person when they are alive! I’m against not SHOWING the person how you feel when they’re alive!

I know that most naysayers will fall into two camps…

The first camp says “Well, they knew how I felt about them, I didn’t have to tell them.”

The second camp says “I’m not the touchy-feely kind. It would have made us both uncomfortable.”

Let’s take a look at those…

“Well, they knew how I felt about them, I didn’t have to tell them.”

     So, how would your wife or kids feel if you never said I love you? How would you feel if nobody ever told you? Let’s put it into a practical sense. At the store you’re owed $2.46 back in change but they never give it to you because they “know” you won’t mind if they don’t give it to you! Just because we know someone and like, appreciate or love them, doesn’t mean they also won’t truly be moved by finding out the impact they’ve had on us!

Time to look at the second camp…

“I’m not the touchy-feely kind. It would have made us both uncomfortable.”

This is a cop-out, plain and simple. Not a hugger, fine. Send them a card letting them know! Drop dinner off one night telling them because you thought they deserved it! Call them and tell them, write them a letter and there are about a hundred more I could come up with. Honestly? DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN NOTHING!

I have a good friend who goes into a funk every time someone they know dies. (And the older we get, the more that’s gonna happen, trust me!) They talk about how wonderful they were, how bummed out they are, why this, how come that, etc, etc, etc…

STOP IT! It’s time to put your “big boy and big girl pants on” and take advantage of what life has given us!

LIFE and TIME

We have the TIME to begin to thank others for making our LIFE better!  By the way, that time isn’t tomorrow or to say “Yea, I should do that this weekend.” The time to do that is NOW! They might not be here tomorrow or for that matter, you might not be here!

Fill your remembrances and conversations after the death of a friend with the wonderful stories, the laughter you shared, their importance to you and most importantly, the TIME you spent with each other and how they enriched your LIFE!

PEACE

     …..Gregg

I thought I’d change things up a bit today and post a different take on my One Minute Blog. The subject matter is about or goals in life, but it’s much deeper than that.

Enjoy this audio version and let me know how you feel about this blog and also if you’d like hear more audio blogs in the future.

Peace

     …..Gregg

https://soundcloud.com/user-341054109/sets/gregg-masters-a-common-mans

A very wise friend included this in a text conversation we were having.

“Those who travel outward

seek completeness in things;

those who gaze inward

find sufficiency in themselves.”

     — Liezi

By the simple act of sending this to me, she reminded me that wisdom has no age and should always be shared. Whether the wisdom comes from prophets through the ages or it comes from conversations with your parent or conversations with your kids…

Wisdom is ALWAYS given to you to USE and to SHARE!

Look inward to see who you, what you want, not what you think but how you feel, where you are on your life’s path so you’ll know how to get where you must go. My Dad who was a pretty wise man, told me on more than one occasion about pointing fingers. He’d always tell me that each time you point a finger at someone or something, the remainder of them were pointing back at you!

The time has come in our troubled world to act, and the responsibility falls on each of us. My point is that sharing our accrued wisdom is a way of acting, as are things like voting, giving rides or help to the elderly or disabled, visiting a sick neighbor with some soup or some flowers, organizing a neighborhood function and a myriad of other possible actions!

The time has come (for some) to stop saying how much they want to help and then do nothing. Quite frankly, THAT’S A COP OUT!

So, in order figure out how to do this, let’s take another look at that earlier quote…

“Those who travel outward

seek completeness in things;

those who gaze inward

find sufficiency in themselves.”

     — Liezi

For me, this quote says to look inside yourself at those questions I mentioned earlier and remember that nothing done to help someone else is too small!

THEN LISTEN TO YOUR ANSWERS!

THEN TAKE ACTION AND HELP TO MAKE THE WORLD MORE WISE AND MORE COMPLETE!

Peace

       …..Gregg