Practicing law, I see a great deal of tragedy. In handling estates, I see individuals whose lives are cut short because of some disease or accident. In handling automobile accidents, I see individuals of all ages losing their lives or being seriously injured. The grief that comes from these situations is very hard to bear for the relatives, friends, and neighbors of the injured or deceased.
We boarded a train as soon as we were born. The first people we saw on that train were our parents. Along the way of life, other individuals boarded that train, such as brothers, sisters, children, friends, and other significant people. Unfortunately, the train makes stops along the way. At some station in life, our parents will step down and may leave us on the train alone. At other times, even a child or grandchild may leave the train before we get off. As these individuals step down off the train into a station, they leave a vacuum in our life. Others will leave the train, and we do not even realize they have left.
The train of life is full of joy, sorrow, grief, happiness, and all sorts of other human emotions that we experience along the railway of life. We never know at which station we ourselves will step down off the train. It is important that we live our lives with love, forgiveness, hope, faith, and strength and that we offer these to the other passengers on the train with us. When we finally step down and leave our seats empty, we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who are still on the train of life.
I wish each of you a joyful journey on this train of life and ask you to live every day as if it is your last because, as I have witnessed many times, it may be. Thank God for your journey of life, and try to make someone else’s day brighter each day.