Sometimes it can become all too apparent how quickly time passes: such as when you look at pictures of your kids when they were much younger, when you see a friend whom you haven't seen for a long time, or as it did for me today in a sad way. I realized today that I hadn't seen my friends, the Weingands, for well over a year, perhaps more like two years. We used to go to church together, and then I got my church job at St. John's UMC, and the Weingands began attending a Lutheran church up near their home in Hendersonville. When I got my current church job in Mt. Juliet, almost a year ago, I fully meant to phone Claude and Margie to tell them. I knew they would be very happy for me. And then, what with one thing and another, I never got around to it. So today I thought, I haven't talked to Claude and Margie for quite some time. So I called them, and when I got their answering machine, I left a message saying something along the lines of, "Hey, Claude and Margie, I haven't talked to you for a long time...just wanted to touch base, so give me a call when you get this message!" But then I thought, they're not young people (they're older than my parents), so maybe I should look them up online. That's when I happened upon Margie's obituary...from August 14, 2015. It had been almost a year since she had passed away, and I had no idea! All those times I had meant to call them, and I never did. And I had just left that phone message to the two of them: a message Margie would never hear. I was able to leave a brief remembrance of Margie on the website for the funeral home that had handled her arrangements, and as I typed it, the tears began to come. Margie was such a sweet woman, she had been so kind to me and my family. She had been so impressed with my two daughters the last time we had visited them, a summer or two ago. (I still can't remember exactly how much time has gone by since that last visit.) She had passed away, her church had done a memorial service in remembrance of her, and I had never known she was gone. Since our last visit, weeks had slipped by, weeks had turned into months, and months had turned into at least a year...maybe two. Thus this blog post. It's kind of a way for me to purge the regret I feel at not having been more vigilant in maintaining my friendship with the Weingands. I hope I get a chance soon to talk to Claude, to tell him how much I appreciated his dear, departed wife, and to make clear how sorry I am that I didn't know of her passing. In Margie Weingand's memory, I offer this brief prayer from the Book of Common Prayer: O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day
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Corybantic(adj.) wild and frenzied; from Greek κορυβαντες (Korybantes) Archives
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