yes your heart can break for a family you have never known

I cried today, I cried hard, I cried harder and for longer than I have in a very long time because of someone I never knew or had the privilege to meet and yet have heard so much about.

A colleague of mine lost a family member this week post surgery due to complications from a prior illness, she was my age and has left behind 3 children who are the same age as my own, I saw her picture yesterday and I cried, I heard her stories today and I cried... as I sit typing this I am crying, because although she is free of pain and although I know we walk our lives with reason and forethought of what is to come as I believe we pick our path before we are born, I cry for those she left behind and the sheer heart break and heart ache of her family and loved ones.

As I sit here I have thought of the all the times I have yelled at my kids, or become impatient with them, all the times I have wished for 5 minutes of quiet or a break and I feel ashamed, because I still have these moments with my children, moments this woman's children will never have with her again, moments we dismiss, sure we feel the guilt but those moments are gone and we never know if today will be our last day, our last hour, our last minute.

So I beseech you, hold your loved ones close tonight, kiss them, love them and thank whom,ever you belief in or just the universe in general that you have that moment and moments with your children, try to be patient, try to step back, breathe and treasure the moments because we never know when they will be gone.