Kim Priore

So it’s been awhile since I blogged.  I wasn’t kidding, I really am home from Haiti.  It’s just been a bit of a whirlwind since then.  The aforementioned Sox game, SoulFest, nuptuals, etc…all went off without a hitch.  Then not a week after I got home, we lost my Nana, in the middle of the night, just like that she was gone.  Quiet and unassuming, in death as in life. 

Then my brother and his wife left to teach school in Israel for 2 years.  So it’s been a period of goodbyes.  Maybe not goodbyes, but “so long”s.  “TTFN”s for the Tigger fans out there.  So long to my friends in Haiti, so long to a friendship that was not as honest as I thought, so long to my beloved Nana, so long to my larger than life brother and rock solid sister-in-law.  All in a span of about 3 weeks.  I’m kind of tired.

As a result of all this, I’ve been thinking a lot about passing.  About how people pass through our lives for brief periods of time, really.  And we place so much stock in them; what they think of us, how many of them we can gather around us, what they can do for us, what we can do for them.  Rather than taking the time to sit back and enjoy the grace of just being with them, and thanking God for whatever brief time he allows us to have.  That’s one of the things I learned from visiting my Nana toward the end of her life, was that it was possible to just enjoy being in someone’s presence.  She might not remember that I was here, an hour from now, a day from now, and she’s not going to remember what I’m telling her.  But right now, in this moment, she is overjoyed just to be with me.  She claps like a little kid when I walk into the room.  No one else does that.  I doubt anyone else ever will. 

But the grace I have received from friends in these past days and weeks has reminded me that time is one of the most precious gifts we can give.  People have emailed, called, sat with me, posted myspace comments, taken me to dinner, and just generally let me feel their presence.  Whether you took 5 minutes, or you’ve spent 5 days on the “is Kim about to stick her head in the oven?” watch…I appreciate it.  I may not have called back or responded right away, but I appreciate it.  And I’m doing alright…low energy…tend to burst into tears sort of randomly without warning…but doing alright.