Life is full of partings...

A good friend of ours, Brian Reid, and his wife, Jennifer, were killed in a car crash at the beginning of the month. We had known Brian for years, from when he lived in Wisconsin and worked as a youth paster in the southern part of the state. He had recently moved to Indianapolis and we kept in touch through phone calls and emails. He and Wil played Redemption (a Collectible Card Game) online.

Brian was a great guy -- nice, considerate, a person who thought that life was best lived in friendship and love. He'd gone through some tough times, but he never had anything but a kind word to say. With his new job and having just gotten married, things were looking up. We had made plans to visit and...

You don't hear from someone for a couple of weeks, in this world of hit and miss communication, and it's no big deal. Until it is.

I also heard that a friend of mine, L, lost her mother yesterday. This wasn't sudden or unexpected, but sad, nonetheless.

Life is full of partings and grief isn't an evil emotion, but it's an unwelcome one and a hard companion. It lives along side of you, most times quiet and unassuming and then, without warning, it wraps itself around you, tightening your throat and weighing down your heart.