Ken and Barb were the first members of her family to be introduced to me. We hit if off from the start and we spent the past 40 years vacationing together. It was Ken and Barb who first supported Sabine’s decision to partner with me (risky business at the time!) Together, we loved the outdoors and camping and I remember one such time in the mountains of Wyoming when Ken and I got up at sunrise, brewed some coffee and just stood there gazing out at the mountains before us. Ken, not a church-goer, remarked, “David, the only response to this is gratitude.” So true. Gratitude makes us human. Over the years, on a sailboat in the Haida Gwai, fly fishing, biking or canoeing, Ken would look at me at say again, “”Gratitude... David, our only response can be gratitude!”
Just today, I ran across this wonderful reminder:
“In your loss, find gratitude in it for once having something worth missing.”
So, as I walk this new and unfamiliar path in my life; a path that began last month with heart-breaking loss and sorrow, I am finding gratitude; gratitude for Sabine, my partner for 40 years, for the bonds of love and kinship in our families, for the friends that came alongside us and walked with us in both joy and sorrow. For the experiences, delights, and passions we all shared together... for so much... so much...
“Yes, David, you must be grateful for once having had Sabine. someone so worth missing...”
O God, you‘ve given me so much, give me just one more thing, give me a heart that will be forever grateful so that in my loss I can find and hold on to gratefulness. Amen.
You grieve so hard because you loved so hard...and that love is truly something to be grateful for..
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