Isn’t it strange how life is peppered with those moments and events that make one realize how much they don’t appreciate all the good things they have? I don’t mean simply those warm and fuzzy, Christmas morning, isn’t-life-great kind of moments. I mean those times that really jolt one to think about all those things that provide meaning in life.

A co-worker’s husband, a sheriff’s deputy, was killed last week. I don’t know the widow very well, but it breaks my heart to know that she’s a widow. And she’s younger than I am. With two children. And now she’s on her own. I just keep thinking about all those times I call her department and get her on the phone, and how there’s absolutely no way on earth last week at this time she’d have ever dreamed she’d be burying her husband today. I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine that her children will have no memory of their father. I can’t imagine the grief that his family is feeling. I don’t know if the hundreds of law enforcement cruisers that provided his final escort to his burial site was a help to them, or if it caused immense pain. It’s really a difficult thing for me to get around.

I find it just heartbreaking, that any one of us could wake up on any given day and have our lives turned upside down. It makes me feel like I have lots of loose ends to tie up. Lots of things to do. Lots of moments to live.