My daughter called me the night of June 15…her English class had ended at the University and she had caught her train south as usual.  She explained that there was an accident ahead…somewhere on the line and that the trains weren’t operating.  She would have to sleep over at a friend’s on that side of town or take a shuttle bus home.  We agreed that she should stay put and come home the next morning. 

Some time yesterday afternoon, she learned that the young man who died as a result of this collision was someone she had cared for deeply these last several years.  He had only recently celebrated the purchase of his new motorbike and had taken it out for a spin.  It turns out that my daughter and this young man were only a very short distance from one another when this horrible accident happened.  It is absolutely tragic…an impossible thing to imagine from the perspective of his mother and his brother….and an event that will impact deeply, my daughter.

It seems odd…but something that keeps coming up for me since learning all this, is the movie the City of Angels…the one starring Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage.  Remember back to the concluding scenes….remember the words of the protagonist who is asked by an angel….”given the loss of this woman you loved so deeply….if you had known that you would be left to suffer the pain of losing her, would you do this all over again…would you leave your angel wings behind and come to earth as a human being?”

Cage replies after just a moment’s thought….” I would suffer this loss again…just to touch her skin one time….hear her voice just one time…smell her hair…just one time.”

It is evident again and again in my life that we are here to live our lives consciously…we are left to appreciate and cherish all that is a part of our experience. 

This is an absolutely bizarre time to be writing…but I can not sleep as yet.  Tomorrow I will write about the Ordinations of two young men in our Diocese, one who has contributed so much to my own Parish over the last many months.  For now, good night to each one of you.

Take a bite into a pear and really taste it.