Love Is Not Optional

Dear Joanie has had another number of recent losses in her life and has had an opportunity to reflect.

First of all, love is not optional.  It does not allow you to choose it- rather it chooses you.  Whether it be in the sweet face of a newborn with its little wide eyed gaze or the face of a beloved mother in the last moments of her life- looking at you for all the world as if you are the world’s most important girl- it is not optional.  A husband asleep on his pillow- a puppy lounging at your feet- a baby in her crib- what sweeter times are there?  None, really.

From the moment you first exchange glances, breaths or thoughts, love is. Joanie has had a lot of opportunities for love in her life and she is so thankful for it.  She thinks of all of the times that it has stood at her doorstep, and the times that she has opened the door to it, and the most wonderful of those times have been when it has been welcomed in.

We live, we love, we lose.  We love those who do good for others, we love those who do for us, and we love those that we help because they cannot help themselves.

She is sad when she loses someone special- she is sad when bad things happen to great people- she carries flowers to memorial services and cemeteries without fail and she mourns her losses.  She buries the dead and marries those alive and full of hope.

Joanie has been placed on this earth to be there and she knows it.  She is at births, she is at deaths and she is there inbetween to share joy and to share sorrow.  And for that she is grateful.

God bless you, my dearest of the dear.  Amen and good night.