My friend died yesterday. After six years of fighting just to breathe, she was set free. Kim was one of the most vibrant women I have known. People throw around the term “She lit up the room,” but Kim really did. She was funny and kind and smart and all of the in-between. You can see what kind of person she was by the type of friends she had. And, honestly by the vast number of them.

Her husband was her biggest supporter and advocate. He was with her through her worst of it up until the end. He was her rock. Hell, he was the rock for most of us through all of this. I hope, in some way, we can convey to him that he doesn’t have to be, that we are there for him now. Truly, we always have been.

With the loss of my friend Denice a little over a year ago, my own health issues, Beth’s health issues, and the loss of my friend Kim, everything seems so close. And, while I have always been (ok maybe not always but at least since 2008) a grab-the-moment-while-it’s-here kind of person, sometimes I feel like the universe pokes me to absorb what is happening around me.

It also reminds me of Mr. Mayberry who I wrote about in this blog: https://wordpress.com/post/musingsbymissy.com/1571

Sometimes I have to be reminded that I don’t have all the time in the world to do what I want to do, to make amends, to ask forgiveness, to forgive myself. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I don’t have all the time in the world to accept my role in the world, no matter how much I hate it. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I have less time than I thought.

It reminds me of the quote from Jack Kornfield in Buddha’s Little Instruction Book, “The trouble is, you think you have time.”

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