The Unspoken Heart
By Stephen Smoke
When someone dies it is left to the living to determine the meaning of that person’s life…and that person’s death.
To some, a person’s death is a black hole that can never be filled. To others it is a tragic, though distant loss. A waste, as though a piece of destiny had been tossed into a cosmic bin. To others it reminds them of their own mortality, that their own mirror shall one day be empty. And still, to others it means nothing at all.
What to make of another person’s life is really impossible to say. Life has many chapters and we play the hero and villain at various times along the way. We have triumphed and failed, loved and been loved. Sometimes we did not love when love was wanted, and were not loved when love was needed most.
A real life lived is full of contradictions and what-ifs. Who among us would like to be remembered for our worst day or our most unguarded moments? Fortunately, it usually is the best of a person we take with us. In death much is forgiven.
If only life would offer one extra day to settle the books. An opportunity for forgiveness, kindness, and love to fill the void created by the unspoken heart.
But such addendums and reprieves do not exist. And thus we wait. To love and to forgive.
Often until it is too late.
© 2010 by Stephen Smoke. All rights reserved.