I am wealthy.
I am wealthy - incredibly wealthy. In fact, were you to possess the world’s largest calculator, you’d still not have the ability to measure or even guesstimate at the extent of my wealth. It’s immeasurable and irreplaceable. No genius-level mathematician nor any abacus whiz has the slightest chance of appraising my fortune. For my fortune cannot be listed on a bank statement nor fanned out in the cash I pull from my wallet. I am rich of heart.
By that, I simply mean that my heart, my spirit, my soul is gilded with boundless joy, experience, wisdom, heartache, heartbreak, love and truth. It is a simple truth - one that is all too often over-looked and completely forgotten.
In the wee hours of this morning as Rod, Matt and I sat around talking and sipping tea as we usually do, Rod’s cell phone rang. Rod’s father, Ray, who had long been battling aggresive lung cancer, succumbed to his affliction just minutes earlier. Despite the inevitability that we all knew Ray’s death would be, the words 
still filled our ears with shock and our eyes with tears. As we all embraced and loved each other, it was in those moments that the unyielding reality of life came crashing down around us.
To say that experiencing the death of a loved one, whether direct or indirect, causes you to consider what really matters to you is one of the oldest, yet truest, clichés. However, I believe that it is imperative that the course of life brings us such disheartening experiences because it is those experiences that keep us grounded. It connects us with our pasts and reminds us of what is truly important while molding us into the men and women that we are this very day. It reminds us of what is temporary and fleeting in comparison with the abstract that enriches our lives.
I have a ridiculously large catalogue of things in my life to be grateful for, both tangible and not. But what I am most grateful and most thankful for are my loving, adoring and supportive family (being my mom, my aunt and my brother), my beautiful extended family (being the Joneses, the Hunchucks and the Goods), and the countless dazzling and exquisite friends that I have accumulated over my 26 years. To sit here and list you all would take much more time than I have at 11:00 p.m. on a Sunday night.
Were I to say anything to any of you, and were there to be one thing that I wish for you to know deep down in your souls, it is this: You are loved. You are loved so deeply and so wholly and so completely. Your hearts are my heart and that is a true treasure.
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3 Comments
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And you are also loved…more than you’ll ever know. You are my treasure. You are my heart. XOXO
Great post. When my time comes, I hope I’m fortunate enough to look back and remember the great times I had, the moments I lived without regret, and of course, the friends and family that I loved and shared my time with. I doubt anyone ever hits that moment wishing they would have spent more time at work, or had purchased a larger TV for home, but instead wished they had spent more time with loved ones, given a few more hugs, told a few more people they cared, and even watched a few more sunsets on the beach with their special someone’s hand in theirs.
Life is really short, and it’s up to everyone to make each day count.
Great input, Duane. I count you as a friend.