Words to Live By

My son was a gifted writer. He wrote a very long and extremely entertaining blog along with Rachel about their one year Northern Hemisphere van trip. He wrote an occasional magazine or news article critiquing music or politics. But mostly he wrote bits and pieces. He wrote a smattering of journal entries, lyrics to his music, some poetry, and lots of witty, even hilarious emails and blackberry chats on whatever pertained to the docket of the day.

His writing is mostly funny, but now it's become poignant. His list of what he was thankful for on his last Thanksgiving, an April Fool's Day gag in which he told us that he was going to sail around the world, his emails on his last day of his earthly life--all of them are packed with new meaning for us now. In one email he told a friend that his mother (me) always believed him and that it made him feel good. It made me feel all warm inside to simply read those feelings that I hadn't known. In most of his snippets he is expressing affection to friends or family. He poured out a lot of love on people through his words and that is a gift that keeps on giving as we re-visit those words.

So I'm starting a new project. I am gathering up his words and putting them in a scrapbook. I plan to include pictures of the people, places and things about which he wrote. That way, on those days when the missing is so intense, we can pull it out and "hear" him speak to us again.

Proverbs 12:18
Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.