Saturday, August 2, 2008

In the wake of sadness

Last Sunday one of my beloved employees lost her husband. At the very young age of 28 it was a shocking and tragic loss. His wonderful wife and my dear friend is now everything she works to eliminate for others; in the middle of emotional chaos. Feeling anything but organized, she feels lost, confused, and chaotic.
Most of us walk around this world so busy with the day to day rerquirements our life places on us we hardly give a second thought to the day we will no longer be here. Having children will make that clearer for some but not others. Its definately not something we want to dwell on but there is a type of organizing that we all need to take some time and make sure we handle; the organizing of things that will come in to play in the event a tragic accident or cancer or anything else that takes us away from our loved ones too soon. Some of you may have heard of Randy Pausch and The Last Lecture (for those of you who haven't I beg of you to google him and watch his lecture - it will change your life!!), he told Diane Sawyer in an interview that his family was about to be thrown off a cliff and he had a short time to sew a net. Randy was one of the lucky ones who knew the time was coming and could prepare. What if you had no time? What do you need to make sure of? In addition to the logistical organizing of finances and a will, are there relationships that you need to fix? I had a client once tell me that her son said that when she died he was going to bring a dumpster to the house and just load everything in. That led her to call me and we worked hard on her home to make sure that she got rid of the junk, donated the things she liked but had no use for and took care of the things that were important to her. It's not an uncommon call. As people get older they don't want to leave their loved ones with too much stuff to deal with or not know that things that were important to them were not just thrown out. So whether you are 25 or 85 its time to take a few minutes and get your last wishes organized; their is no better gift for your loved ones then to have some peace and organization during a chaotic and disorganized time. And to my dear friend, who is suffering; may the hand of God reach out and touch you and give you the peace and strength you need to get through this time. My love for you is great; you're not alone; I'll be by your side; always.