WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

Sit atop the hill that God gives you and take it all in, all the time

I am a person who has seen many people come and go in and out of his life.  I was reminded of this the other day when Loraine told me where she is now living.  It made me think of my life story and the parade of people who have marched through it.
In the first place, I was a stranger to many of the young people with whom I grew up.  I lived in one town and went to school in the city across the river.  The children around where I lived spoke only English, a language that I had to learn.  They went to the local public school and I went to the parochial school across the river.
When I graduated from the eighth grade, I went to a boarding school Catholic seminary instead of to the local high school.  At that point I was separated from the people with whom I had studied for eight or nine years as well as from the local people with whom I had played while at home from school.

In the seminary, people dropped out regularly, never to be seen again.  I was in the seminary for twelve years and this pattern never stopped.  Along the way, I was assigned to study in Rome, Italy so I had to leave the United States.  I said my goodbyes and one of them from a closer than average friend was his saying to me, "We're laughing and smiling now, but we may never see one another again."  We never did.  He died young.  
Of course, the people I came to know while studying in Italy are for the majority scattered all over the world.  Many of them quietly in their grave.
Along the way I made friends in Italy, France, Spain, Mexico, Canada, the Philippines, Japan, Madagascar, Brasil and other places around the globe.  

The mystery about this is that all these people, many now nameless for loss of detailed memory, still remain a part of me.  I remember the classmates with whom I was in school in New Hampshire, in Rome and even some in the community college that I attended for three semesters in San Diego.  I remember the missionaries with whom I lived and worked.  I remember the teachers who formed me, from the kindergarten on.  I remember the girl that I escorted to the junior senior dance in the eighth grade.  I remember so many people and I more than remember them, I live with them in spirit.

I worked for thirty plus years in the electronics manufacturing industry.  I worked for many companies and with many good people and with many who might be considered somewhat less than good.  I still stay in contact with many of them, the good and the not so good; the beautiful and the not so beautiful; the honest and the not so honest, but every one, human and a work of God.

I thank God that my faith in Him and the Communion of His people keeps them all alive in my heart and soul.  I am never alone for the Church is always my home and its saints are my constant companions.  And, you know what?  Even the ones whom I didn't like and for whom I certainly will not cry when they answer the Curtain Call are treasures for which I thank God.  Not just because they make for good story telling, but most of all because I remember the lessons that God taught me through them.  From this perspective, they too are gifts from Him.  

So whoever you may be, wherever you may be, always keep every soul with whom you come in contact as a treasure in your heart and your soul.  Each and every one is a gift of God to you.  Yes, every one, even those you've been trying to forget.  They too are in your memory for a reason; God's reason.  Seek it out and it shall be unveiled to you.  Trust me on this one.