Grieving is an interesting 🤔 thing. Makes you ponder relationships after a person dies. There are unattended consequences every where. We choose one path with the hope things will get better. And they do partially, yet greater issues arise. Instead of sticking through the storm. We choose a different path hoping there are less struggles.
My friend and I would talk about life, mistakes that happen. Our reaction to world events. The outcomes of eternal decisions all based on misunderstandings.
He made mistakes, we all do. Forgiveness is for everyone. Although rough edges are present, my friend helped me realize we need to forgive ourselves for mistakes we made. We need to forgive others who wronged us. Don’t hang onto un-forgiveness or it will cause unattended harm. Your health can be impacted, relationships can be severed, or severely hurt. A lot of hurt can fester for years.
Leaning “not” on our own understanding is key to living life more peacefully. When we look at life through others eyes and how our actions can impact others, both today and tomorrow.
We are only given today. We don’t know what tomorrow brings. It could be a new job, new opportunity or a pandemic. Our world has experienced a lot of rapid change, and as human abilities to adjust quickly. Many struggle as our nature is to seek comfort and safety over danger. Some like the thrill but many go the opposite direction.
My friend would sit back, humbly share his position yet I sensed there was more to the story. Wisdom comes with experience, especially in failure.
Is partial failure also a partial victory? Don’t we learn more in those times? My friend and I would “banter” back and forth over talking points.
In the end, we enjoyed each other’s company even though at different seasons of life. Taking time to get to know someone is important. Trust, integrity, honesty and love for the person builds bridges.
What is another lesson I learned from my friend? Seek out those at different seasons of life. Seek others who are different than you but have similar goals about learning new things. It takes time, patience and persistence. The reward is both involved will receive benefits from the friendship.
I will miss my friend and our times on the porch chatting.