The thing that pulled me out from where I was, is the news of a great friend of mine gone missing and it has been a long time now. He called Brenda on her birthday and that was it. Never heard from him since.

I’m writing this to try and capture feelings and emotions in this space. It’s numbing, its grief, it’s sadness, open ended.

My friend lived in Chicago, I met him at the church my father Pastored several years ago, he attended regularly and we connected from there.

He helped me work out with weights and the machine, I loss a teenager (in weight!) and got fit. Yep, “a lean mean fighting machine”, I didn’t fight though, just trained.

My friend taught me about running and finishing strong. I learned how in running to increase in distance incrementally and run through the finish in the end, don’t just stop.

We had different upbringings, different history, but one thing in common, we loved the Lord. We stood together through much pain and grief over the years, each bearing our soul to each other. I will always remember those times. They built us, they grew us up and matured us.

It’s strange without a formal goodbye. It’s weird because  even while not talking for brief periods of time, there was nothing final to it, it was like putting a book mark in a book and picking up where you left off next time. This feels different.

The longer the days go by, the more it seems unlikely to see him again.

This is just another sobering reminder to be conscious of the time spent, and time shared. Had I known that last conversation would find me here, I would’ve said something much different before hanging up.

Truth is, we never know…So, now I’m making adjustments that leave my last talk, my last acknowledgment, more meaningful, more lasting because we never know it may be the last.

anablepsis.