Surprise Endings: New Beginings

Make room for surprises and embrace them. Don’t shy away from risk even when it scares the hell out of you.

Kathy and I were talking last night around seven or so and one of us said those very words about surprises and risk. “Make room for surprises and embrace them. Don’t shy away from risk even when it scares the hell out of you.”

It meant so much to us I quickly wrote it down in my notes on my phone.

At 7:41 we got a call from a friend who called to tell me a mutual friend died yesterday morning. No warning signs was found dead in his motel room.

I won’t share details because the word is not out yet and I try to respect peoples privacy.

This notification shocked and rocked my world.

I just spoke with him on the phone last week.

He was someone who enjoyed life and who enjoyed me, at least that’s the way I will always think of him.

He wasn’t afraid to take risk, think out of the box or try something new to see if it would stick. He trusted me and I trusted him. Today I realize what a short list that is in my world right now.

I dreamed about him last night.

I dreamed I prayed over him in his motel room and God brought him back to life.

But when I woke up, the news hadn’t changed the dream was just a dream.

Surprises are part of life. A good part and a bad part. But surprises must be placed in context. They are not meant to overwhelmed but give time for rest, reflection and a lesson in not over-reacting. Surprises are opportunity for change but you have to make change not wait for it to fall from the sky.

Surprises usually are the result or cause of risk. Most of us are risk resistant rather than resilient towards risk.

I want so badly to be the latter but surprises and shock often follow each other and when the news is hard or seems bad, thinking calmly usually fails to make my top ten list.

So while my heart and mind fight for control of my emotions as one concocts scenarios yet to be seen and the other pushes towards sadness I must remember what this guy taught me. I must remind myself how he trusted me and be thankful God put someone on this earth who actually saw me, not just the reflection created on television or the internet.

People impact our lives if we let them.

I let him and he did.

One of the things we talked about last week was each member of his family and how proud he was of them.

Looking back seems pretty awesome and outside our normal scope of discussion.

We talked about how screwed up the world is and as I softly woke up this morning I thought “at least you don’t have to deal with this crazy, screwed up world anymore.”

Death is part of life, not a part of life we care to focus on until we have to.

But this is not the end for my friend but a new beginning.

The ultimate risk taker, just took the ultimate risk.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of his family.