Familiarity

     Experiencing the familiar can be a comforting thing. We know our surroundings and the people around us, there is great comfort in our creature habits.
    But it can have its downside too. It can cause us to take the people in our life for granted resulting in a failure to truly appreciate them.
    I feel this more sharply than I have ever felt it before. We don't fully understand until the person that we have taken for granted is no longer there anymore. There is a void empty space.
    Memories are a double edged sword, there is joy in remembering, but there is pain in knowing that no more memories will be created with that person.
    You really realize in your heart how much that person meant to you. You may have known it in a thought, but it's like it has hit home.
    If there is one thing I could impress on you it would be, do not take your loved ones for granted. It may sound silly or trite and make fine words for a Hallmark card, but truth is truth.
    No amount of someone telling you that your loved one is in a better place is going to make you feel better. I expect in time the heart adjusts to the loss, comes to accept the way things are. The moments of acute pain will dull. The lesson learned is to look at the ones you dearly love who are still right here and appreciate them. Appreciate means it gets more valuable with the passage of time. May we truly appreciate our loved ones and look at them with new eyes.