Where I Get a Little Serious

I had a funny little ditty post in my head to post today, but in light of recent tragic events in my not so immediate family. I wanted to write some thoughts instead.
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At first I was reluctant to attend the funeral, no one likes funerals and I had meetings at work and it was 30 minutes away. One of my meetings was canceled, so I took that as a sign I should go.
Lindsey was my second cousin or something, my mom could tell you, she is good at all that relative-figuring-out stuff, but all I know is that her dad is my dad’s cousin. I didn’t know her. We may have meet a few times, but we rarely saw each other and so would spend out time playing with our closer cousins that we knew better.

During the funeral I was introduced to a person I would have really liked and would have liked to have known better. Sometimes you hear stories about inspiring people, they do inspiring things or overcome inspiring odds. But Lindsey through the way she lived, has inspired me. I sat there and listened to the beautiful memories and wondered if there would be that much good to say about me. I’m not saying that I’m a terrible person or that everyone hates me and will be singing “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” but will I have lived the life that would tell it’s own story. Lindsey lived with passion and excitement that I could feel just hearing about it. She lived life to the fullest at all times. Going hiking and running marathons. She worked hard making sure that the boys she worked with all knew that she was no delicate flower and could keep up with them. She also knew what is really important. She was friends with everyone she knew and that was evidenced in the high attendance at the church. She also had a wonderful testimony. It was high praise indeed that her bishop said when she shared her testimony with him before leaving on her mission it was the most spiritually filled his office had ever been, and that’s a man that gets the Lord’s help every step of the way.
I found it very interesting and poignant that during the funeral they sand a song from the musical Wicked “For Good” which I’ve only known for about a month now. This song makes me cry driving around in the car and I thought it especially beautiful today:

It well may be

That we will never meet again

In this lifetime

So let me say before we part

So much of me

Is made of what I learned from you

You'll be with meLike a handprint on my heart

Like a comet pulled from orbit

As it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder

Halfway through the wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

I have been changed For Good

I guess I need to say that because I knew of Lindsey, I have been changed for good. It’s hard to know that her family had to say goodbye to her so early, but while there may be regrets on our end of things she never got to do, but there aren’t regrets over the things she’s done. She lived more life in her 23 years then I have, and I envy her that and vow to live in a way that there won’t be regrets for the things I said or did.
Death is always hard on those left behind, but life is so valuable because it ends. It’s precious and fleeting, we only get our own lifetime to live and while sometimes it seems like things happen for no reason, there is reason, it’s just that we don’t understand what it is. That’s why the gospel is so important, it really know that we can be together forever, it does take the sting of death away somewhat. And as Psalms 30 tells us, weeping may endure for a night, but Joy cometh in the morning. It may be a long night, but eventually comes the morning. Knowing that Lindsey will be with her family again makes it easier for them to let her go, because it’s only for a season.
I hope that I can make changes in the way I live and make them stick. Even after her passing Lindsey is still motivating people to live better!