While there is still time...

My neighbor across from me received a phone call this morning, early, before he left for work. He's 81, originally from Jamaica, and still works full time every day. His younger brother, by two years, passed away. Unfortunately, he heard about it a week after the fact and cannot schedule a flight, or the time off, in time for the services in Jamaica. Fortunately, he did take a trip last Fall to see him, and that helps ease the sadness.

I managed to see my sister, 11 months younger, two weeks before she passed away last December. She didn't seem aware of me for the 8 hours I sat and held her hand, but on one level, I'm sure she knew. That visit, or the memory of it, helps ease the fact that I wasn't there when she passed on.

Back in '94, our household had a terrible time when companies failed and the aerospace industry in CA laid off thousands. The company I worked for failed and I faced difficulty finding another job for the first time in my entire life. My mom lived near Vegas, and encouraged me to move. I did. I could easily have delayed the move, held off a little longer, tried again and again where I was. But something had nagged at me to do it, and to spend some time with her, "while there was still time." I got to Vegas in February, 1994. She passed on in October that year. But those few months were months I would not trade for anything.

We all have friends and loved ones who we have a nagging need to visit, just "one more time."

Do it, if you can, while there is still time. Oh, I don't mean you should mortgage the house for the trip, or borrow money on the title of your car, or take some of the cash value on your insurance. But if there is a way to make that "one last visit," without bankrupting yourself, do it. I don't think you will ever regret it.

There are too many times in our lives when we cannot see someone dear to us that "one last time." So, do yourself, and your loved one, a favor, and do it while there is still time.

Dear Father, there are still some people I would dearly love to visit, even if only for a day, just one more time, while there is still time. If it be according to your will, I pray that you will guide me in the timing and the details, and thank you for the times that you did exactly that.