Lots to think about...

While on vacation I found out that my childhood friend, Stacey French, passed away after a tragic accident. She left her two daughters behind, as well as a new husband and step children. Each time I would travel home to Canada, I would see her at her store in the Food Court at the mall. We would chat, I would buy a diet coke or sometimes she would give it to me "on the house." We would trade quick stories and that was that.
When I heard of her passing, I immediately had this flash of memories that played like swift movie clips all connected together into one. I saw us walking to primary afterschool, stopping at her house to raid her mother's food storage for koolaid packets and jello that we would eat on the way...I saw us picking flower on the way for our primary teacher...and getting yelled at by the lady whose garden we "borrowed from"...I saw us in Jr High at Basketball practice...then as Football Cheerleaders...the list goes on. Most of all I could hear her infectious laugh playing as the soundtrack.
I cried for her family who lost a brother and a son just a few months past. I cried for her daughters who will not feel the arms of their mother around them. I cried for myself that I wasn't a better friend. It strengthened my resolve to wrap my arms around those I love more often than I do and to tell those I love, "I love you" at every opportunity. Our time here on earth is not our own, I want to live with no regrets.