Love

7/18/2012

Love

What pearl of wisdom an I impart on you today?  Let me think for a minute.

How about enjoy today because tomorrow is not guaranteed to you - or anybody else for that matter. 

Years ago Jeff and I were taking the train from Chicago to central Illinois to spend some time with my brother and his family.  Train travel is very pleasant, you get to move around, lots of leg room and comfy seats.  For reasons I can no longer remember a perfect stranger introduced himself, sat down near us and we proceeded for several hours to have a most engaging conversation.  This young man and Jeff exchanged business cards and after arriving home a week or so later, a book came in the mail from this young man, titled simply Love.  The author of the book was a professor, Leo Buscaglia, who taught at the University of Southern California a non-credit class called Love 1A.

Professor Buscaglia wrote 6 other books all based on relationships.  His theory boiled down to this:  tell someone you love them TODAY, or forgive them TODAY or whatever you need to do or say, don't wait, make it happen TODAY, not tomorrow.

By the time my father passed away a number of years ago, I was devastated by the loss; but, I was also happy that he knew at the very last moment of his life how I felt about him.  Why?  Because I had told him so.  I hadn't kept my feelings a personal secret that I wasn't wiling or able to share with him.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said when I suffered an unexpected loss and hadn't been so forthcoming with my feelings. That relationship simply ran out of tomorrows and the words I wished I had shared were left unspoken.

I wasn't raised to be verbal or demonstrative about love; but I'm working harder at hugging and telling people that I love them and I'm doing it TODAY and all the next days that I have.

Here is one of Professor Buscaglia's quotes that I particularly like: "Love is life.... and if you miss love, you miss life."

Remember - TODAY.

P