Being Ready

“We’ve all got to go sometime.”  To me, we prepare for that to happen and then live life like it will never happen.
I guess it is a getting older thing.  I have seen people go all around me.  Sometimes it is sudden and at other times it is slow.  However it happens.  It is inevitable.
When I was younger I only considered such things in abstract terms.  It happened to others but not to me.  When Merril was out walking the other day this young thing in the prime of life walked by her.  Merrils only thought was “wait until you are older, and you will understand.”
B J Thomas sang “One day I’ll be sleeping, when death knocks on my door.”  To me it happens like that if you are lucky. Phil Keaggy sings a song called “Quite Suddenly.”  I love that song.  It is the one I down loaded from the album.  For the person concerned, if they are ready, then suddenly is good, lingering is bad.
My mum and dad have gone.  A good mate went unexpectedly.  Someone I knew and liked and interacted with on Facebook went suddenly.  Another person was on their hospital bed and I knew it was the last time I would see them.  Others experience this much earlier in life.  For me it has only been in the last 20 years or so.  I miss them all.
I really don’t know when the last time I see someone will be, so it behoves me to treat everyone well.  There are few things sadder than to hear someone talk about the disagreement they were having with someone the last time they saw them.  Be it friend or enemy, it is in everyone’s interest that all are treated respectfully.  To me, it cannot be one rule for one, and another rule for another. 
In terms of the age of the earth or universe, life is short.  It can seem really long but in reality it is not.  I joke with Merril about my “recent” operation.  In earth age terms it is recent, but it happened over four years ago now (if talking to Merril it was “recent” ok?).
When I go, I just want to be ready.  Ideally it will be in my sleep and not as I heard someone say, “Screaming like the passengers in my uncles’ car.”