Life is a Gift

I planned on many topics for my first blog, and it was supposed to be happy and funny, but as my blog is titled "This is Me", today I am sad.

This morning on my way to work, I got a message from my husband that Route 12 was blocked in town and that there was a detour.  Then I got a text from my sister asking if I knew why Route 12 was blocked.  As so happens when you live in a small town, a detour can cause a traffic jam.  And as also happens when you live in a small town, people start talking.  So the next text said that there had been a fatal car accident, hence the detour.  And as also happens in a small town, your first thought is "I hope it wasn't anyone I know."  And then a half hour later came the news: it was someone I knew.

Today my friend Ashley lost her husband, her two young sons lost their dad, parents lost a son, siblings lost a brother, many lost a friend, a young football team lost their coach of three years, and the town lost a good man.  Bryn was a man's man, an outdoors kind of guy, a big guy who was most comfortable in flannel shirts and jeans, a hard worker.  He was a big guy with a big heart who was most happy when with his family, the kind of guy that looked like a lumberjack but like a big teddy bear when holding one of his sons. 

Bryn left behind a strong wife, a wife who truly enjoyed her husband's company, and who loved him as a husband and a best friend and as a partner in marriage and parenthood.  My heart breaks when I think of what she is going through, the thoughts that must be running through her head and the incredible loss that just doesn't seem real.  I pray for her, I pray for her children, and I pray that she is strong enough to let people help her and to try to make things less difficult for her now and in the future. I hope she takes comfort in the joy that he not only brought to her and her sons' lives, but the joy that they brought to his and the love that was shared by them all.

And, at this time, I am reminded of how precious life is, how nothing is guaranteed, and how sometimes bad things happen with no warning.  Life is a gift, not to be taken for granted, and to be enjoyed each and every day.  So today I will breathe in the crisp fall air, hug my husband when he comes home from work, prolong bedtime a little bit longer for my children and open my arms as wide as I can to take it all in, this gift of life.