In A Daze

Originally posted on: March 19, 2009

Why does life oftentimes seem so meaningless after we lose a loved one? My great-uncle died Monday, and was buried yesterday. He was my great-uncle, but he was just like a Grandpa to me since both of mine were gone before I was 3. We were very close to each other. Now all I can think about is “I wonder how many times he drove this road” or “I wonder how many times he ate at this restaurant” I can’t think about anything else but him and his life (a wonderful 92 years might I add!) I’ve just been in a daze, going through the motions ever since it happened.

While thinking about crazy things while on my lunch break today, I stepped out of my car to come back into the building and heard a bird singing and wondered, “How long do birds live?” and “What happens to birds when they die?” You know, sometimes you’ll hear on the news that someone found a dead bird, but usually that just warrants an investigation into West Nile Virus. Do birds just go into the woods to die? Morbid I know, but death has all I’ve been able to think about for the last 3 days.

So anyways, I looked up the life-span of birds. Mainly just wild song-birds, you know, the ones we hear outside everyday, and I was actually very surprised that they live much longer than I expected! The very first bird listed was a house sparrow, (all these birds had been banded by the government) and it was listed as being more than 15 years old! I thought maybe 2 years, 3 at the most. Well… I guess we learn something new everyday!

Please keep our family in your prayers at this difficult time. Uncle Wallace will be very much missed