If there is one thing more In Praise of Men that I would like to add, it is this:
Today I was attending a funeral for a friend of mine and as I was standing in the foyer, I struck up a conversation with a man who was standing alone there too. He had a name badge on because he worked for the funeral home and was handling the arrangements for my friend's funeral and burial. As we talked a little while, he offered that he is eighty years old now and having recently reconnected with a friend from the past, is looking forward to his own death hopefully very soon.
"I don't know why I'm telling you this, " he began and then added, "I had a dream about six months ago in which I felt I had died. And such an overwhelming sense of peace came over me."
"I lost my own father to death at the age of 50, " I replied, "and now that I am at the age of 52, I have lived longer myself than I had ever planned."
"You're still young," he assured me, "and as you get older, aging won't be so hard. It will all be okay, you'll see. And then one day you'll be ready to die. There is nothing to fear."
Tears lept to my eyes as I said, "While I surely believe that you may be ready to die, it is your family who will suffer and miss you after you are gone."
Then his eyes became red as they brimmed with tears too, and he said, "My father's death was the hardest thing I've faced in my life. I keep his photograph on my fireplace mantle. One day I looked at the picture inside the frame and I realized that I was looking at me. I have become my father!"
And we laughed and we cried as we delighted in this special moment that had passed between us.
And so that is another reason why I wanted to write this blog posting "In Praise of Men", because not only are you irreplaceable and awesome and wonderful to be around, but you also live on in those you have loved. And I count myself blessed to be among them.
Thank you, Men in My Life.
You mean the world to me just by being you.
(What, are you crazy??? Don't let Micaela fall! Sheesh.
Good thing there is such a thing as GIRL POWER too!)
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Today I was attending a funeral for a friend of mine and as I was standing in the foyer, I struck up a conversation with a man who was standing alone there too. He had a name badge on because he worked for the funeral home and was handling the arrangements for my friend's funeral and burial. As we talked a little while, he offered that he is eighty years old now and having recently reconnected with a friend from the past, is looking forward to his own death hopefully very soon.
"I don't know why I'm telling you this, " he began and then added, "I had a dream about six months ago in which I felt I had died. And such an overwhelming sense of peace came over me."
"I lost my own father to death at the age of 50, " I replied, "and now that I am at the age of 52, I have lived longer myself than I had ever planned."
"You're still young," he assured me, "and as you get older, aging won't be so hard. It will all be okay, you'll see. And then one day you'll be ready to die. There is nothing to fear."
Tears lept to my eyes as I said, "While I surely believe that you may be ready to die, it is your family who will suffer and miss you after you are gone."
Then his eyes became red as they brimmed with tears too, and he said, "My father's death was the hardest thing I've faced in my life. I keep his photograph on my fireplace mantle. One day I looked at the picture inside the frame and I realized that I was looking at me. I have become my father!"
And we laughed and we cried as we delighted in this special moment that had passed between us.
And so that is another reason why I wanted to write this blog posting "In Praise of Men", because not only are you irreplaceable and awesome and wonderful to be around, but you also live on in those you have loved. And I count myself blessed to be among them.
Thank you, Men in My Life.
You mean the world to me just by being you.
(What, are you crazy??? Don't let Micaela fall! Sheesh.
Good thing there is such a thing as GIRL POWER too!)
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
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