I don't wanna feel the hurt no more, smile on me baby (Day 9)

One of the flat out blessings of this blog (and it's cousin blow, Piss and Vinegar, is that I've got to interact with people around the world.

For a small town kid such as myself, that's completely amazing.

Through it, I've made a companion in a guy, Thomas Rumbold, a musician and resident of the UK/Germany. A very intelligent and talented dude who I've gotten to engage in conversations a few time. Go check him out.

Recently Thomas lost a friend of his. Death is always hard, especially when it's such a staggering age of only 27.

Right now, Thomas is calling Germany his homebase. His friend past away last weekend in the UK, and honestly...I can't imagine a moment more heart wrenching immediately after finding out a loved one has succumb to mortality so far away. A country separating you in that time in your life has to be one of the most difficult things to endure, especially when you don't have much money.

But several of her friends chipped in and bought him a ticket to her memorial.

Thats an act I couldn't believe. It nearly drove me to tears hearing him talk about it.

The way he spoke of his friend, I wished I'd had a chance to meet her. There are some people that you can just tell are special from the get-go. People that are going to mean so much more than just an acquaintance, and it was clear she was one of them.

Tom played a song between each person that went up and spoke, and wound up playing an entire set. At 10pm, they released Japanese balloons into the white.

Hearing him talk about it, being outside in the snow with everyone else being each others show of support and source of comfort...it was special, and I wish you could have borne witness to him speaking of it.

It recently passed the five year mark of my Aunt Jane passing away. The way her passing affected my father shook all of us to the core. Where all who know him on a deeply personal level, to see him be shaken to the very foundation, and have his faith rattled as such...left all of us stunned.

Theres a feeling of loneliness and abandonment when someone we love ultimately leaves us.

But the words, the spirit...all of that has to remain, or all of this was for naught.

I'm grateful to've been able to have had Tom share this experience with me, as I get the sense he's a pretty reserved individual.

For you pal, I thank you entirely.

Strangely enough, it inspired me enough to try to swallow everything thats effectively been eating at me as of late. I want to get better, and I want to be a better person.

I can't explain how grateful I am to have been able to experience what I have today.

For your lost friend, I'm terribly sorry to hear that horrible news. Life is entirely too fragile. Bones break too easy, cancer ravages too quickly, sickness can consume in a moments notice and it catches us all off guard. But when you can make an impression on a person you'd never met before, when you can make them regret not ever having crossed your path...the god damn it, something was done right.

Maybe this world isn't so fucking evil after all.

Maybe hope hangs above our heads in Japanese balloons, as reminders.

Until tomorrow.