Life is a series...

...of goodbyes -- and hellos.  We started 2011, like most -- gathering with family, enjoying each others company and celebrating.  We said hello to a new year of promise and hope.  Our family will cherish those days as we reflect on the events that unfolded in the weeks ahead.

In the first days of the first week of this promising new year, Dennis's father Ralph, took a fall from a ladder as he stored Christmas decorations.  He suffered severe trauma to his brain, and left this earthly life on January 11, 2011.

This post has been a long time in coming as I contemplated what to say -- and who would read it.  The words came to me this past weekend, as we drove home from San Angelo, where Jack exhibited his lambs, and said goodbye to them.  He was sad to see them go, and as he walked away from taking the last lamb to the truck, he said to Dennis, "I guess life is a series of goodbyes" -- this, his reflection of the sadness he has felt -- and we all have experienced -- this year.  Dennis responded, "It's a series of hellos, too."

I have told Dennis many times that Ralph was one of my all-time favorite people.  Even before we married, I commented that I thought Ralph was about as close to Jesus as one could get.  He was a gentleman's gentleman, and was loved by so many.  We miss him so, but we know that he said 'hello' to eternal life and is now singing in God's choir.

The days, weeks, months and even years ahead will not be easy, as we continue to mourn our "Poppy."  I am thankful for the Christian faith born in me when I was baptized as an infant, confirmed as a teenager and still in the process of developing as an adult. 

Helen Keller once said, "Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light."

I know that we, as believers, have the hope of eternal life, just as Ralph is now experiencing.  And as we say hello to every new day, that hope remains.

"This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."  Psalm 118:24