LIFE OCCURRANCE AND THE OCCURANCE OF LIFE

You know that the more things that occur in life the more that life occurs. Pretty deep, huh? So deep you may drown while stuck in the muck, probably. I’ll spare you from a slow death, and bring you back to the surface. A lot happens in life, and these build to make you who you are and allow you to actually LIVE… a little easier to swallow, right?
Just recently I came across a phone number of somebody I hadn’t seen in almost 12 years. OK,OK, so I actually went looking for it in a nationwide online “white pages” notebook, but i found this number nonetheless. The number belonged to someone I had met while vacationing in Sarasota almost twenty years ago. During that summer I met a large family of cousins, some from Tampa, Florida, and some from Houston, Texas that went to Siesta Key for two or three weeks every summer. We happened to coincide with them every year, but this one particular year we all became friends. It was an odd friendship in that it only seemed to occur while in Sarasota. Save for a couple of times that we coincided elsewhere, we never spoke much except while on vacation. The interesting thing was that whenever we would go back it seemed as if time had stopped and that no time had passed since the last time we had seen each other. It seemed almost like a natural progression.
After a few years of meeting annually, the large group that would vacation began to dwindle as we began college and some of us began working in our careers. After about ten years we stopped meeting. I still went back to Sarasota every year but for differing reasons none of the cousins would go.
Still, every time we would go to the beach, they would come up among everybody who knew them there. It wouldn’t be the same without their presence there, even it was only through reflection.
So I decided to call my friend just to see what was going on with her life. She didn’t answer so I left her a message. Within five minutes she was calling back… with her sister on the line. She heard the meessage and was so excited that she had to call her sister and call me with her on the line. So many years had gone by, yet their voices were exactly as I remembered them. the personalities had not changed. Time had again frozen for the moment. i truly enjoyed the conversation knowing that many more of these probably wouldn’t happen seeing that we still live very far away and we all have families that are our top priorities. But one thing is for sure. They made an indelible mark in my life, and I really enjoy reliving those moments, even if just for a moment.
OKAY, so this really silly human being with a warped sense of both humor and reality is also a softy cornball. WHAT’S IT TO YOU? I live for reliving the past. It’s not like I’m psycho about it, but the truth is that my memories, both good and bad, are a large collection of the many things that made me who I am. I really don’t have many self esteem issues. I really dig being me. Having said that, I really dig having become me. I always look forward to making more and more memories. Part of the reason is so that one day i can relive those too. But, a large portion of these new memories I want to make with the people who gave me some of my best memories to begin with.
It is for this reason that nearly 18 years ago we made a time capsule, knowing that 10 years later we would be able to get together and relive the moments in the capsule. It is for this reason that I planned my 20 year elementary school reunion back in 2004 so that I could see all those with whom I grew up. It is for this same reason that i am looking forward to planning an event that will allow for the whole Sarasota clan to reunite if only one more time.
Life is too short, and the people you most cherish may not be there for long. i got a dose of this recently when my father in law passed away. He provided me with some great memories over the 12 years i had known him. now i copuld relive them with others, but not him. Almost a year ago to the day, one of the members of SpiritAlive, the young adult group which I headed for almost two years passed away in a motorcycle accident. The group that we had formed so many years ago which for the most part still keeps in contact will never be able to be whole again. Now, I feel that we need to all get together again before tragedy hits again, and we lose another opportunity to share another grand nostalgic moment, and create another great memory.
My wife thinks I’m just a bit tooooooo nostalgic. She may be right. I may be crazy. But Billy Joel was crazy first, and he’s a lunatic or so he says. Where was I? Oh yeah! Too much nostalgia. but I’ve come to learn that life is just the collection of great and awful moments in life. the more great moments youhave, the greater and more fulfilled that your life will be. For me, these memories are just a reminder of that. I don’t dwell in the past. i just recall it, so that i remember that i must continue to make life great every day (no small feat, may I add). She doesn’t understand when I tell her, for instance how somebody who was in my life for only about 8 months could mean so much to me. There are way too many people like that in my life in her perception. Again, she probably has a point. The truth is, though that if I feel that they helped me to become a better or more complete person, then they are as important to me as anybody who has been in my life everyday since birth.
People will come and go in your life. it is our resposibility to make a positive impression on everybody… not some people, but everybody. People will then percieve you in a light that will always make you special. in doing so, you will also consider the other person special. Life is about giving of yourself to others. Yet, in giving many times what we receive is even grander. For me what I have received are these wonderful memories.
I ran into an ex of mine recently. I hadn’t spoken to her in nearly 8 years. We had just gone in separate ways even though we had remained friends after we stopped dating. Our relationship had changed in a way that I felt that I never really needed to see her again. the truth is I didn’t. But when i saw her and spoke to her, I remembered why it was that we got along so well. Seeing her and her family made me happy to know that she was happy, and that i may have helped her in becoming this person who seems so happy now. She in turn had helped me become me, and i was so happy to be able to show off my two boys who were with me, and let her see the product of the man that she helped to create. There are hundreds (or even thousands) of people in my life like her that helped to make me, well, ME. If I could relive every moment along the way, I probably would, just so that I could see how I’ve grown through the years. This would also be a reminder to me: Keep making memories. Every person you come across will make an indelible mark. Allow that mark to become a conscious part of you, so that you could be thankful to God for that person forever, and so that will always look forward to the day you meet again.
Nostalgia is a good thing. It is productive. At least to me it is. I look forward to my next great moment to be relived. Allow life to occur, and your occurrence will mean life.
Until the next LO…