Let Those You Love Know That You Love Them, Today

Here we are on the edge of civilized Panamá, pretty doggone close to Tocumen International Airport, the airport that services Panamá. And inside these lot lines the grief, the well wishing, is serious.

Rosendo Moreno, father of the clan, aged 74, passed away a few days ago. And the family is gathered, we’re getting ready to go to the final service. Friends are gathering, well-wishers, those who want to encourage them and keep from being alone.

And outside this lot line life goes on as normal. Airplanes are flying, taxi cabs driving, buses, trucks, people—the people walking down the sidewalk in front of the house, don’t even have any idea, any feeling, nor any connection with what’s going on.

We’re so close here to the edge of civilization, the famous Darién Jungle, the unexplored vasts of the rain forest of the Isthmus of Panamá. There’s so much promise there, there’s so much savageness there, there’s so much unknown…

And at this point, when it seems particularly appropriate when we’re talking about—a lot of people have their theories about what happens after death, but call a spade a spade, we’re living in a a scientifically minded society… Anybody can have a belief, it doesn’t take any brains, any intelligence, any truth, to have a belief.

The fact is, it reminds me of the Darién Jungle or Hotel Califo
ia - you can get into Death but you can never leave…

And I see his favorite chair, that now belongs to the mother, Carmen. Nobody ever sat in it when it was his, nobody sits in it now that it’s her’s. The hammock’s up. El Capitán, his favorite dog, the one that guarded the property, is still guarding the property, but there’s a sadness in him. There’s still other dogs barking in the neighborhood. To my left, there’s an unfinished garden project. There’s really so many questions, so many changes, and we do wish the family well. And we don’t know what’s going on.

We do know that, as a human, we’ve got our time, then we disappear. And there’s a few moments of grief among those who were close, and life goes on.

Now, this is not a message that life goes on….

It’s a message that—do what you can while you have the moments to live! Carpe Diem, seize the day. The things that you do live after you!

Let those you love know that you love them, today.