Second Chances

     "You never get a second chance to make a first impression."

     The jury is still out on who should be credited with this ounce of wit.

     The above quote, whomever it belongs to, may be true in some cases.  Situations like a job interview need a good first impression or a door to door salesman.  If some dignitary shows up at my place and finds me poking a dead possum out of a not-so-live trap, (a story for another day), they may certainly have cause to make a wrong impression, but they would need to hear the whole story first.  In that case, I would have a second chance.

     Second chances come in many forms.  Finding a new job after being laid off would feel like a second chance.  Getting over a serious illness is like being given a second chance.  Working to mend a rocky road in a relationship is a second chance.  

     One of the last conversations I had with my friend ended abruptly and I thought that was odd.  I called them back a few days later and knowing they were having some major health issues going on, I asked the usual question of how they were feeling.

     "I'm in hospice."

     What followed was a long awkward amount of silence.   When I finally found my voice, I said, "I don't know what to say."

     My friend replied, "Nobody does."

     The rest of our conversation was filled with idiotic small talk about things that did not matter and then we said goodbye.  It was our last goodbye.

     Our Western culture has a strange aversion to death and dying.  It's like the pink elephant in the room, everyone knows it's there, but no one wants to talk about it.  This needs to change.  It is like the guy I saw at the gas station the other day with a tee shirt that read, "statistics show that 10 out of 10 people will die".  How true.

     I was given a second chance, and I missed it.  All the research done over the past eight years, all the books read and testimonials listened to about what happens during and after death stayed still in the back of my mind.  I did not tell my friend to not be afraid.  I kept silent the knowledge that this was a transition, not an end.  I did not give them the encouragement of knowing that the Angels of Light would be there, waiting, to take them home.  I missed the chance to explain that this world we live in is just a mere shadow of what lies beyond the veil and the Light, that would beckon them, would open up into more beauty and love than they could ever imagine.

     Watch for the second chances and try so very hard not to miss them.