Burn it!

" I'm dying, the doctors have given me six months to live. I want to come visit you and say, 'Good bye'." Sometimes you only know the value of something when you realize there is a limited amount of it. My last visit with Debbie was like that.

I first met Debbie when our husbands were going to seminary together. I had been married a month and she had only been married two weeks. I shared with her all the knowledge I had gained, she seemed to appreciate my wisdom. Over the years we developed a deep friendship, and now she was coming to say ,'' Good bye".

On our last visit together we shared our memories. Debbie had named her first child after me. She had adopted  Sarah from Korea and had invited me to be with her at the airport when the baby arrived. I will never forget watching Debbie hold her little girl for the first time. I stood beside her and cried tears of joy.

We not only shared our joy but our grief. Because we lived in different states we didn't see each other often. I had just finished sharing something with Debbie when she said," Sarah, you grief over this is so fresh but I know it happened years ago, why is that." I told her that while cleaning the attic I had found one of my old journals. I had printed one word across the front of it,"Sorrow". I told her how I had spent the day sitting in that hot attic reading it. She was silent for a while and then said," Burn it!"

After Debbie left I kept thinking about our conversation. I had worked so hard to forgive the things I'd written about in my journal yet still I wanted a record of my pain. Debbie's life had been reduced to months she gave me a perspective I didn't have. Life is to short to hold onto sorrow.

I built a fire and began to burn page after page. Soon there was nothing left but ashes. Forgiveness means you cancel a debt. Not keeping a record of the wrong done to you means you let go of the pain.
Thank you Debbie for sharing your wisdom with me. I will see you again in Heaven.