Are you ever sitting quietly, having your morning cup of coffee… and think… “Hecky dern.  I wonder where ol’ Stinky Pendleton is these days?”  Or maybe… “Hmmm.  I wonder how my cousin Elwood is doing?”

Here’s the thing of it.   We lose touch with people.  Our lives shift and change.  I see it a lot with work situations.  You might be on the same job with someone for 15 years.  You are the very best of friends… working side by side… every day of the week.   And then one of you quits or moves away.  Oh…. you VOW, to stay in touch. You DO.   You poke your thumbs and seal it in blood while your standing in front of the vending machines in the break room.

But then it happens.  They just sort of fade away.  All that time just drifts away.

We don’t mean to, or do it on purpose.  We just get pulled into another part of our lives.

Sure….  there are certain people we keep connections with… for years, and years.  In fact, I have one friend that I’ve know since I was about 8 years old.

I’m not sure why it happens one way this and one way that… but it does.

I can only say that I am very glad and grateful for all the good people in my life right now.  I am blessed with loved ones, in the shape of family and friends.

I am also thankful for every person in my past.  The significant and the passing.  Each person I have met, has in some way, affected my path.  My life journey.  It may have been a little blip, or a huge kapow.

I just learned that my cousin Judy passed last night, making her the 3rd one of my cousins to pass.  She was born in 1947…. the same year as my oldest sibling.  We were never extremely close, because of our disparity in age.  But I am sad for her, and her kids… and all those people who were significant in Judy’s life.   I know she will be missed.

My point, I guess… is that no matter where we find ourselves in life, there are people who mean a great deal to us.  We should let them know how much we love them…. not only in words… but in actions.

Nothing is permanent or guaranteed.  But we can take this moment and be a part of life.  While we have it…. life … precious life.

 Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.  —  Marcus Aurelius
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Forever is composed of nows.  —  Emily Dickinson
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 Buy the ticket, take the ride.  —  Hunter S. Thompson