I sat down tonight to complete my writing assignment for next week. All I had to do was write a 300 word obituary for myself. This doesn't sound hard, but it was. As I struggled to come up with the best words to say, I realized how hard it was to talk highly of myself. Usually when one reads an obituary they see the persons greatest contributions to society, all of the lives they had touched and so on. It was hard for me to think about the lives I have touched or of any great contributions that I have made to society. After all, how much can a divinity student really do to change the world?
After writing it, I asked one of my closest friends to read it. She did and halfway through said she couldn't take it anymore. It was giving her chills. For my sake, she continued to read it and then she began to express her feelings.
Far too often I think we don't tell people how we feel about them. We tend to be private with our feelings, keeping things to ourselves. We don't tell our friends we love them, we don't share how we really feel because we think "there's always tomorrow."
In my life I have lost many people. Some of these people died. Some of these people have moved out of my life in a way in which I will never find them again. Some of these people I pushed out of my life and some pushed their way out. As I thought about these people I lost, I wondered how many of them really knew how I felt about them.
When you look at my personality type, I am a feelings person. I feel before I think. However, even though I am a feelings person, I don't always do my best at telling people how I feel. I believe that I often hide my feelings so that I have less likely of a chance to get hurt. The truth of the matter is, there is more that I need to share with people than I really do. I need to tell people how I feel.
So I'm reminded...of the challenge once given to me by a wise old friend. "Tell people how you really feel because there may not be a tomorrow."
I challenge you (and myself) to tell people how you feel about them. It will mean the world to them and it will change your world as well.
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