Life is the unfairest of gifts. It comes to us while we are in our most vulnerable state and it departs, often with little notice given, when we are most unprepared. Life brings us both wonderment and surprise but tempers our awe with intermittent occasions of unfulfilled anticipation and disappointment. Life is an exploration for undiscovered treasures and the path to its riches is not without obstacles. Yet, it is the journey that always reveals the greatest of wealth by the measure of those we meet along the way.
When we look back over the paths we have come on our individual journeys no matter how short or long, we are able to see the crossroads and detours that caused us to question our particular direction from time to time. Yet, at each junction there was always someone of whom we could ask guidance whenever we were in doubt. They were our “pathfinders” and each of us knows one… and probably more.
Through valleys of failure as well as our peaks of success, we came to depend on and seek out those pathfinders. They offered us help in finding our way when our maps were unclear. They reoriented us. They gave us direction. They gave us comfort by reassuring us we were not lost. Most of all, they offered us guidance, without judgment, no matter which direction we were headed or, how many times we may have passed the same crossroad.
One of the most enduring of those pathfinders for me was a man named Howard or, “HD”, as many of us knew him. We were classmates. We were roommates. Simply stated, it was my privilege to call him “friend” for well more than half a century.
I am immeasurably grateful HD allowed me to share in his journey and take pride in knowing he was an integral part of mine. I treasure the recollections of all the times we shared. Whether a simple card game around a kitchen table or a life-altering event such as the births of our children, these and more were moments in time made that much better for having shared them with my friend.
I am deeply saddened his journey has come to its end but am honored to carry his memory with me as I take my own gift of life a little further down the road.
Rest well, my friend, you will be greatly missed by the many whose journeys have been made that much easier for your having been a part of them