I think it was Joni Mitchell who penned the line "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone." And she is so right! I lost my wife over 20 years ago, and I didn't appreciate her presence in my life until she was gone. No, I don't beat myself up over ignorance and mistakes in my past. Instead, I do my damnedest to avoid making the kinds of mistakes that I'll regret in the future.
So why am I referencing the line from a classic song?
Lately, I have been thinking about the impermanence of life and the people I miss. There are times that I want to visit my friend Barbara in Cape Cod, and then I remember that she isn't with us any longer. Not all of the friends that I miss have passed away. But some are just too far away to be in regular contact. For example, YGM now lives in Florida, and it is very inconvenient for us to keep in contact. She has a job, two kids to care for, as well as a mother and a husband. I can only imagine what she has to deal with, and keeping in touch with her friends is not high on her list of priorities.
It's been ages since I've heard from my friend, WDS. He gave me the present of a fully loaded iPad when I got the job with the payments firm in NYC. Sadly, I lost that job due to my own inadequacies for that job. But in many ways, it was the best thing that could happen to me. I didn't know the freedom I'd have when I decided not to work on a full time basis anymore. And I didn't realize what I lost when I had to start watching my pennies again.
Change is an ever present constant in our lives. The older we get, the more we lose from the lives we once led. Yet, this gives us new opportunities - if we're lucky to see them.
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