A Happy Tear
As we travel unique roads in life, it is sometimes saddened by the fact that those that travel along with us eventually step off the path.
They can simply follow a different route, taking the path of least resistance, or they may choose a steeper climb.
Sometimes they find a life peril that they cannot overcome.
Either way we look at life, it includes comings and goings. People enter our lives sometimes for a season, sometimes for years. Then one day they are no longer on the journey with us.
This time of year for me brings those absences closer to my mind and gives me more of a desire to reflect upon happy times past.
As we look deeply into our minds eye, those folks who made such an impact upon us are often among those that are absent.
I found the other night as I tried to find sleep, my head turned on the beige cotton pillow case while making an a dent in the heavily stuffed pillow. No matter which way I turned my head, or my body, the gray matter inside my head just kept churning out images from across the years. The moments I saw made me exceptionally happy. Childhood games of play, college dates, and moments that shaped who I am.
All of these filled my head so, I couldn’t find sleep, so eventually I just got up and watched TV until the movie I was watching lulled me to sleep.
Despite the respite of sleep, the next day the images remained flashing in my thoughts. I found myself welling up inside not understanding really why. My body was doing it, just on its own course.
The tears flowed down my check as these people who had meant so much in my walk were visible to me again.
The longer God blesses us with time, the more people will flow in and flow out of our adventure. Some reach so down deep within us, that we are left with a huge hole inside when they are gone. Those holes never really fill, they are just left along the roadside. But from time to time, a smell, a photo, a place brings an artesian spring to life from the bottom of those holes and the water finds our eyes and a few drops drip out upon our cheeks.
For most, the tears of sadness long ago emptied, and those that now flow are happy memories, tempered with some amount of missing.
This time of year, though I am ever mindful that men are not suppose to cry, it seems I do run up on a few more artesian springs dripping on my cheeks from time to time as I have at least in my mind looked back down the path at those left behind, on another road or raised beyond my reach for now.
I pray that any waterworks in this time of year which come to you are underlined with a happiness that once was and hope for what will be.
May 2025 be a year of amazing opportunities for all of us.
