FEBRUARY 17
All the wonderful things in life are so simple that one is not
aware of their wonder until they are beyond touch. Never
have I felt the wonder and beauty and joy of life so keenly
as now in my grief that Johnny is not here to enjoy them.
—FRANCES GUNTHERPerhaps anything that reminds us how fragile life is evokes
this feeling. How could we have taken life’s gifts for granted?
It is a poignant realization that our loved one is deprived
of these gifts of which we are so newly aware. We almost
feel as though we need to experience the world for two
people.
Perhaps we can think of our newly enhanced sense of the
beauty of the world as a gift from our lost love. We can also
comfort ourselves by remembering how, in accounts of near-
death experiences, a constant theme is the astonishment at
the beauty and light of the world beyond. Perhaps the beauty
of this world is but a foretaste of what is to come.
In my savoring of the wonders of this world, I can sense the pres-
ence of my love.