Absent Friends

            The holiday season is a time when we tend to think of absent friends and loved ones.  And we call to mind a toast, which has been aft attributed to Robert Burns:

To absent friends

To those we have met

To those we have yet to meet

To those who have left us for a while

And to those who have left us forever

Let us lift our glasses

And drink a toast

That they may abide in our hearts

Forever.

To absent friends

            To Ted, Frank, Esther, Don, Don, Merk, Carroll, George and Melba, Bernie and Ila, Ray and Eleanor, Florence and Leo, Mike and Kyle, and many others, absent friends and loved ones!  We remember and we miss you, and we are grateful for the part of you that remains in our hearts.  Hard as it is, we recognize that you have fulfilled the purpose for which you came, and you have moved on.

            Around here we are no strangers to these feelings.  They are part of the price of loving.  And we must never fall into the trap of thinking that we are alone in missing loved ones.  As surely as it happens to us, it also happens to people everywhere in the world.  No home is immune, whether a mansion or a tent, a cabin or a cardboard box.  So as once again we gather to celebrate spiritual renewal in the joy of our chosen faith, let us all raise a toast to, and perhaps set a plate for, absent friends.