This is the first Christmas with the inability to wish my father the best and to remind him how much he is really loved. With a heavy heart and a sense of earthly finality, I am suddenly filled with the realization that I have neither my father or my mother to personally bless on this special day and forevermore. As each of my grandparents came to rest, the sadness was there-as they were each very special-but the sense of total finality didn't really hit my brain as harshly as when my parents followed the same pathway. Then, the keen awareness settled in that each and everyone of us follow the same exact outcome. While personal pathways are slightly different-the outcome is effectively the same. As one grows older the time that we are blessed with in having to share with our remaining loved ones lessens within each passing day and our only chances left to be remembered are the footprints we leave on the remaining aging relatives, siblings, children, and grandchildren. The impact, or imprinting marks-whatever one chooses to name them-are solely dependent on the efforts we personally make on our own level. How do we want to be remembered? How much effort are we willing to unselfishly render? How much reflection can we endure? I want my remaining loved ones to fondly remember me so I must try to find more ways to invigorate my efforts to devise and arrange new experiences with each of my special loved ones. No one knows when this ability in sharing will cease as the length and quality of life is as unpredictable as the gift itself. I have enjoyed my time so far.....yes, I've lost special loved ones ahead of me, but I view my losses as no greater than those accumulated by anyone else. Such are the ways of living. I still believe in an Afterlife with Jesus Christ and hope that all of my loved ones will be equally blessed, including myself. This concept is pervasively my main prayer and the wish that loved ones are always protected. The national and world calamities that we have thrown up in front of us, on a daliy basis, keeps in mind the dangers that are always present. The only effective coping weapons we are able to truthfully instill within anyone are truth, love, and kindness. Those human traits I try to relate to and think of most whenever reliving memories of Mom and Dad. I hope my own legacies of truth, love, and kindness will be strong enough to help me to be remembered, also, in future times. It won't be that long before my own children will be facing their own Christmas without parents.