I will tell you something not a lot of people know…  my big sister and I had a very very big fight a few years before she died, she actually didn’t speak to me unless it was to yell at me for about 6 months, what I did wasn’t really that bad, it was completely necessary, even. In time she realized it, ‘forgave’ me and even thanked me for what I had done that had caused the rift between us.

3 months ago on the morning that she passed away, all I could think of was how glad I was that that rift had been mended and we were again as close as we had been before it happened.  She was again one of my best friends and someone I could count on to be there for me as I would be there for her.

I can’t imagine how much greater the pain of her passing would have been if we hadn’t resumed our regular conversations about absolutely nothing, and absolutely everything…

I ask you now to take a moment and look around you… literally and figuratively… look at the people who are and have been part of your life. The ones who are still there and the ones who are not. The ones who are there, do you make sure they are aware of their importance in your life. Do you thank them for the things they do and tell them you love and/or appreciate them and their presence in your life?  Now the ones who are not there… some we obviously can’t do anything about they are beyond our reach, lost to us and there will always be a piece of our heart missing, but some, SOME, we can still reach out to and try to mend that rift and see if there is a way to bring them back into our lives. We might not even be aware of what caused them to pull away, or we might know exactly what it was, we may need to give or ask for forgiveness.

I understand this may need some thought, and i fully understand not all rifts can be mended. It might not be something that can be decided right now, all I ask is that you look around and think about it. Can you really live without that person for the rest of your life, without that forgiving or forgiveness? Think about the part they have played in your life up to now, and what has been missing since they stopped being part of your life.  Now imagine you don’t have a chance to make up for lost time.

Feel free to share this post if you think others can benefit from it. Family is too precious to let petty grievances keep them apart.