Aunty loves Garth Brooks’ song “If Tomorrow Never Comes” where the listener is encouraged to tell that special someone how he or she feels now in case there is no tomorrow. Garth’s beautiful words make me think about all those people we have fallen out with and have stopped speaking to. My partner had a close friend he has known for over fifty years. They caught up regularly but, once the friend remarried, they no longer speak. My partner swears he did nothing to upset his mate. The mate is probably sitting somewhere right now thinking the same thing. Neither is going to make a move to reconnect and another close friendship is lost.
I heard of a son who now does not speak to his mum because she refused to buy the grandchild a pair of expensive running shoes. The kid wasn’t into running in a big way, yet the son has imposed footwear estrangement onto his mother for over twenty years. If that mum had committed murder, she probably would not have received such a harsh punishment. But we set ourselves up as judge, jury and executioner and dole out years of solitary confinement to those we should cherish the most.
As time disappears into yesterday, the shoes become less important. Now the focus has to be on how awful the mother must have been for that son to have ignored her for twenty years. We need to justify why we have treated our loved one so badly for all that time. Fact is, most of us are not that awful. We fall somewhere between Hitler and Mother Theresa on the evil scale and most of us tend towards the Mother Theresa end.
Then the inevitable happens. The person isn’t around any longer and you pine for all those missed opportunities. You are left carrying the regret and sadness. Meghan Trainer sings, “Love them like you’re gonna lose them”, because some day you will and we never know when that day will come. Tell people whom you love exactly that today.
Love is a doing word so back up your saying with actions. To let people know you are thinking of, and appreciate them, give them a call or send a message, letter, card or small gift. Better still, go and visit them. All of these actions, when done with genuine love, will mean a great deal and cost so very little. It is easy to show you don’t take loved ones for granted so don’t wait for tomorrow to do this because tomorrow may never come.
Tell someone today that you love them and mean it.