Is it really goodbye?

Today was the day that the friends and family of my departed neighbor gathered together to celebrate his life.  I just feel that it is so odd to celebrate a life cut short, but I now understand it was more of a way to embrace the memories and share with others stories of what made my neighbor so special.  I guess it is a far better way to be remembered with pictures and stories as opposed to the solemn pain of looking upon a person whose life is over in a box.  The final goodbyes of the person that managed to become more than just a neighbor, but a friend will be etched in my memory banks.  You see, it is far rarer to see a young person pass before "their time" in my life. Usually, the funerals that I have attended were of family members far older than I am that died of understandable, yet always unaccepted because we want our loved ones to live forever, means.  Hearing of a person that has not really experienced all that life had to offer pass so suddenly tends to leave a sense of questions we prefer to not think about when it comes to our own mortality.  I just remember what my parents would tell me about life and death.  Even as I have gotten older, the reasons for a person dying is still quite choppy and confusing, but I remember being told a few of these things that were supposed to soften the blow when dealing with loss.....

One reason I have heard is this....  "God called his child to come back to heaven because the job that they were supposed to complete is done."  Now, my question is... what was that job and how does anyone know that it is finished?  Really, where is it written that we have a specific purpose in life to achieve before God decides we are to die?  I would like to know because if I knew what my purpose is... I would like to take my time achieving it because I like to be among the living for a while longer.  No matter how trying life can be, I would rather deal with it than walk away from it all.  I guess that is why suicide has never been the answer for me.

Another reason I have heard is that there are two parts to every person....  A tangible side that people can touch and see, and an intangible side that is commonly called the spirit of a person.  The spirit of the person defines who they are.  Well, a time will come that the tangible part of a person will wear down and die off.  That part was never to last forever, but the spiritual side will live on.  I guess that this is the option I tend to lean upon at times when people that I care about pass away.  I believe that as long as the spirit remains and memories are kept alive, people never really leave us.  At least there is the comfort that there is no more pain when the spiritual side is released from the tangible side.

I guess my question of the day is.....  Is it really goodbye if the memory stays alive?   I know that I will never see my neighbor's face or hear his cynical rhetoric about politics, but only that part is gone.  The memory remains.  After being at this celebration of the life of my neighbor, meeting a broad spectrum of people that knew and loved him, and the stories shared about a person that managed to touch the lives of so many... How could anyone think that he is gone forever?  I never got the courage to step up in front of all of these people to share my thoughts or offer a decent eulogy, but knowing what I know and seeing people that most would never think could share a common thought of one person, be together in a room, reminiscing, laughing and crying together taught me one thing today.....

Being the person you choose to be does not limit you to the lives you are capable of touching.  It is the lives that you are capable of touching that makes you more than what you thought you were.  Think of it this way....  You never know how special you really are until after you are gone.  Sadly, we tend to not see how blessed we truly are.  After today's experience, it definitely makes me see things differently.  I have a little more appreciation of who I know, what I have and who I am.....