“Home Sweet Home”
Hey My Friends! Hope all is well and you are staying cool. It is officially summertime here and the next nine days are showing temperature over 100 degrees. Yipeeee!!!!!!
Natalie and I recently returned from a 2 week vacation to Long Island in the Bahamas. It was an amazing vacation. We have never been gone for 2 weeks and had never been to Long Island. WOW!!! This is a beautiful island, about 80 miles long and at it’s widest 4 miles. Almost 10 years ago we went to Cat Island in the Bahamas, very close to Long Island. The Bahamas are beautiful.
A very dear friend told us about these two islands, we chose Cat Island to go celebrate our 25 wedding anniversary. We were there for a week and loved our experience. This time that same friend took care of our trip at every level and sent us to Long Island. His dad has a beautiful place on the island and we had an amazing trip.
I met this friend years ago in Argyle. He had wonderful boys and a beautiful wife. He and his wife moved over to the area Natalie and I now live. I buried his wife almost 3 years ago and spent many mornings sitting with him and listening to him process the loss of his wife. Fast forward and I was diagnosed with my brain tumor. After my surgery I sat with him and talked about life, a terminal brain tumor and realizing my time here was probably not going to be near as long as I had planned. I love this guy and would never had experienced the trip we just had without him! The trip was simply a bonus to the friendship.
My next post will focus only on the trip. I am at a place in my journey that reminds me how important friendships are in this life. Each friendship is not the same. That’s okay! I have several friendships that have been very special in different ways. For me, these important friendships are two sided. These are friendships that sometimes require me to support and love that friend. Then the table turns and that same friend loves and supports me. Sometimes those friendships are simply about enjoying life. Then life throws a curveball and we need someone that knows us well, that is not going to judge us and obviously supports and loves us.
As a pastor and therapist I have worked with so many people who go through challenging and painful life stuff and they feel like they have no one. They feel alone! I struggled with that. When people are facing life ending illness or times when life is difficult they need the love and support of family and friends. Many honestly don’t have that. That is a time in life it is hard to help that person understand their part in their life!
I have been through many difficult times in my life. My fathers death when I was around 3 years old started this process for me. Life can throw many difficult challenges that you and I often had no part in, we simply have to navigate. One of my greatest blessing’s have been always having friends who loved and supported me. In some ways and odd ways it gives me comfort as my family and I navigate a terminal brain tumor.
Life is honestly pretty short. There are so many times in our life we really don’t control what happens and impact life. I hope you each have friendship that work both ways. There are times you are the love and support and days you need love and support. Be grateful for those friendships.Those are the ones you can truly celebrate life and also mourn the pain of life.
I promise next post will simply be about and amazing trip to a beautiful island and some of the wonderful people we met.
Never, Never Forget……. “You are Loved and of Great Value.”