Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Second Beatitude







My dear friend of seventeen years passed away this morning. Her passing from this life to the next left a huge void in my life, however, her life at this point had very little quality and physical pain of great magnitude.

I took turns sitting with her for the last few weeks and made sure to my ability that she had what she needed and wanted.

She and I always had a little saying that goes like this, “I love you, love you, love you.” Two days ago when I told her I loved her, she said, “ I love you love you.” That was our last conversation.

The beatitude that says Blessed Are Those That Mourn For They Shall Be Comforted has a phrase in it that fit my friend and I just perfectly. That is I mourned her suffering.

Of course, I mourn the loss of my best friend, but the mourning of her suffering was almost unbearable. This one sentence calmed my spirit this morning like a soft balm.

As you know I generally find the humor in things, but my friend’s illness will shadow the humor I see for quite some time.