Thoughts of Last Weekend

For those of you who hadn't heard, Kate's uncle Barry passed away of cancer last Monday. She and her sister Emily (along with Emily's husband Jason) drove up to Bozeman, Montana to attend the services. They were gone from Thursday through Saturday last week.

I offered to go with them...you know, to provide emotional support for Kate...but we talked about it and we decided that with three exams and a paper coming up shortly, I couldn't really afford to miss two days of classes. So I stayed behind.

It sounds like it was an emotional couple of days. Kate seems to be doing better now; we talked a while about what she was feeling. Her uncle Barry wasn't what I'd call old, only in his mid-fifties. It made us both realize that we both have a number of relatives who are in the same age group. It's scary to think of any of them (especially our parents) as mortal beings that we may not have around forever. You get used to having these people here on Earth with you, even if you don't always stay in touch, and it's jarring to realize that they won't always be there.

We should always try to make time to stay in touch. Even just a phone call or an e-mail might be worthwhile. Because, well, you never know, you know?

On another note...

Although Kate was only away for three days and two nights, I felt her absence. I hadn't realized how accustomed I had become to always having her around, especially in the evening. The house was so quiet at night that it was almost depressing. Even the cats were little help. Chiral didn't want to play with Rune; she just slept most of the days on Kate's side of the bed.

It's the little things that surprised me. Example - Kate has gotten into the habit of getting up early with me and making a breakfast-to-go for me every morning. She says that she does it for selfish reasons - mostly to keep herself from oversleeping. But I really appreciate it and the two mornings that I had to fend for myself were rattling. I was almost late for work Saturday morning and class Friday morning because I hadn't thought to allocate a few extra minutes to prep some breakfast for myself.

I also found I wasn't very motivated to do anything. Granted, I'd been suffering that for most of the previous week, but it was particularly hard to make myself work through my routine while Kate was away. I got up Friday morning and wondered, "Why should I bother shaving? Kate's probably the only one who would notice." But I forced myself to do it anyway, if only because my scruffy-faced look is rather comical. Also, I knew that I should do some housecleaning because I had people coming over Saturday night, but I couldn't make myself do it. I blew off most of it Thursday night and it wasn't until something like 7pm Friday night that I finally pushed myself into doing basic vacuuming, dusting, and so forth. It was like a part of me wanted to drift back into the slovenly bachelor I used to be.

Thankfully, Kate did return (albeit drained and with a bit of cold) and everything's getting back to normal. It's not like she tells me what to do or even constantly expects me to do things; it's just that when she's around, I honestly want to do the right things. I want to have a clean house for us to live in. I want to make myself presentable and pleasing to her. I want to do all the things a husband should do ... because I love her that much.

Love is such a great motivator.

So I guess the point I'm getting at with this post is that this last weekend really made me think about how much I need to appreciate the people who are in my life - my wife, my parents, my sister and her family, my new in-laws, my family in Iowa and Thailand, my friends both near and far. We're only given a certain amount of time on this Earth and only our Creator truly knows how long that time will be. We have to remember to make the most of what we have because, like the saying goes, life's too short.

Well, I guess that's what I felt like sharing today. Thanks for reading and I promise to have a more upbeat post within a day or so.

God Bless!