Grief.

I've been thinking a lot the past 4 days about life, death and grief. It's hard to put in to words the feelings you have when you lose someone close to you and your loved ones. Wednesday night, our dear friend, Mike Lee, had a heart attack and died.

Mike isn't just a friend of ours, he's a husband to one of the best people I know, Lori, and an uncle to one of my closest and dearest friends, Niki. He left behind two boys, Cade and Eric who are 10 and a beautiful daughter Samantha, who's 13.

My heart truly breaks for their family. I feel like the grief I've been feeling is mostly FOR his sweet family and not for my own personal loss. I'll miss Mike for many reasons: his ability to make me smile and giggle every time I saw him, his amazing love and care for his daughter who is severly handicapped, the way he always would drop whatever he was doing to play with kids and even act just like them and his strength and support he always provided for Lori. I've observed him as a husband, father and uncle.

What I'm mostly grieving for though, is the loss that his children, wife and family are going through. I know that their lives will never be the same and they'll have a long and hard road in front of them. Seeing my dear friends in such pain is so hard to watch, yet I'm grateful that they have many people surrounding them to show love and support.

I've been thinking a lot about my own family and relationships. It's interesting how death opens up your eyes and makes you focus more on the things in life that matter most. It's also a little sad that it takes the death of a loved one to remind us how short life can be and how grateful we ought to be on a daily basis for life itself and those who we love.

I'm very grateful today for the knowledge I have of eternity. For the knowledge that this life doesn't end at death and that someday we will see the ones who go before us. I love the gospel. I love my own eternal family. I love that at the end of the day, even a day as hard as this, I can have peace and comfort in my heart knowing that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and blesses me.