for one more day

Best selling author Mitch Albom came to speak about his new book For One More Day last week at Holy Communion. Mitch kept hearing the theme of having one more day with a loved one when people talked about his other two popular books. He didn’t speak very long, but by the end of his talk, nearly the entire packed room was moved to tears and wishing they had one more day with the loved ones that are no longer with us.

I have a kid sister. She will be twenty three-years-old in a few months and still looks up to me like she did when she was ten. Mitch made me feel a little guilty about my attitude towards Ann sometimes. I love Ann as much as any brother loves a sister, but I guess I don’t do the best job of letting her know how much I care. When she calls, I often am in the mindset of “what in world do you want this time?” She usually is just checking on me or inviting me to dinner or lunch. Yet, I write her off. I almost always put her after my friends and I can’t seem to figure out why. Ann’s a neat girl, cool as can be.

Mitch talked about how we only beg for that one more day when it is too late. It’s not too late. There are so many wonderful people in our lives that we have another day with. I feel so foolish now after all those years of getting upset with my father for wanting the family to have a sit down dinner every night. I was always putting up a fight claiming I had to be out cruising the neighborhood with the local rug rats of my hood. Mitch reminded us of the importance of the personal relationships between people. Every day is a new invitation to spend one more day with those loved ones in our lives. John Wayne once said, “Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.” Tomorrow is my opportunity to tell my sister I love her.