Top photo: Uncle Roy (on left) with his brother, john’s grandad. I love how his hair is flying all over the place and his little mustache is perfectly cut straight across – as it was each time i saw him. I also like grandad’s beaming pride in this photo. It was taken at the new WW2 memorial in DC last fall.
Bottom photo: Uncle Roy (left again) telling grandad a joke. I remember this like it was yesterday. Uncle Roy was cracking himself up with this joke.
i was thinking about my run yesterday and realized that the best part about it was when my running friend Sarah told me she loved my ‘energy’. what a nice thing to put out there…she’s a sweetie. The very moment i met her (over a year ago) i knew i wanted to be friends with her. I love when i meet someone and feel the connection right away. it’s like everything in the universe is right for that one little second and wala, there you have it, the beginnig of a great friendship, relationship, whatever it may be. it happened when i met john, and more recently, uncle roy (who has since passed away). and it continues to happen in already established friendships – those moments when you really feel a soulful kinship. kimmie and i had one of these moments/mornings during her visit a few days ago. i live for these moments. they are the best of life’s gifts.
speaking of uncle roy, i thought i’d post a couple of my favorite pictures of him. he was so tremendously special, it’s hard to articulate. i feel like we had our own special little bond, but i’m pretty sure he was someone who made everyone feel as if they were bonded to him. he was that special. i knew him only a couple of years and only saw him a handfull of times, but he left a huge impression on me. he was old and frail, but his spirit was anything but old and tired. it soared. he was incredibly positive and happy and i just don’t think i’ve ever met someone so full of joy. it was a say-and-feel-it-outloud-joy. he said that growing old, for him, was the best time of his life, despite his physical ailments and limitations. he once told me that being with his family was like tending a beautiful garden. He was in the phase of his life where his garden had bloomed into a spectacular life of its own and he was enjoying watching all the growth – of his children, nieces, greatnieces and nephews, grandchildren, and so on. I will never forget a conversation john and i had with him last year while in DC. he began to talk about christ as he knew christ to be. he described christ to be like a diamond in one’s heart covered with muliple layers – layers of past mistakes, greed, anxiety, fears, etc. and when you begin to peel away these layers, you are left with a spectacular diamond, your true divinity, the christ. it was a beautiful, touching conversation. he was a natural teacher, nurturer, seeker of truth, someone i aspire to live like. i will never, ever, for the rest of my life, forget him or the life lessons i learned from him in such a short amount of time.
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