The Sweet Spot

You don’t know it. But now. Right now. It’s a Sweet Spot.

They aren’t all quite as powerful as others. Meaning that you may have already experienced your sweetest. But don’t fret. The moments after don’t have to be wretched.

So what is a Sweet Spot? Or rather, I guess, what is it to me?

I suppose what I really mean is. What can I lament on? Or maybe, impress upon to you? Reader. As a mortician who may have some insight?

Well, it’s that time when everyone you love is still alive. Just bluntly. That. No one is dead. Yet…

And, while maybe your parents are already dead. Or one of your children has passed. Or only your grandparents have died and everyone else is intact. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any number of stages you can be at to still experience this phenomena. (I have my cat. And I’ll have you know, we are eleven years strong.)

But it will all change.

My dad had cancer last year. I hardly spoke of it to anyone. But his card got punched and we could of lost him. We didn’t. And now I get to enjoy his barrage of emotionally depressing texts for a few more years.

And thank Christ right? If my parents didn’t ruin me a bit I’d have nothing to write about. (My mom is rolling her eyes right now. Hi mom!!)

But the point here. The point is. You are going to look back. Much like I do. And maybe, with regret. Like I do.

I look back and realize that everyone was alive and I wasn’t present. And now some of them are dead. And my parents struggle with illness. And I missed it. I missed the time when all of us were healthy. All of us were still together. It stared me right in the eyes. And I was so damn stubborn. I let it slip through my fingers.

And now my brothers are gone and moved away. And cancer still has my dad. Because, it doesn’t ever leave. It only goes into remission. Here today. Gone tomorrow. That is the human whose cells have turned against him.

And so this is my warning.

Enjoy the Sweet Spot. If you are unsure if this is it. Then it probably is. Because one day. You’ll meet “me”. You’ll meet the human responsible for burying your family. And you will realize the same that my families do.

That that is the first day. Of many. That you will live without that person.

So as you sit down, on this P.C. holiday whatever’ness. Look at the faces that surround you. Because next year they may not be there. And you will look back and remember that that was the only time you had them. All of them. And you will never get it back again.