This world has lost a special person who has moved on to the next path in his journey, and I want to tell you about him. And there lies the value of a blog - you all agreed and said - 'you just go right ahead and do that'. We can seldom find the words to feel we have fully expressed our thoughts and I will only do my best at this time.
As I seek to tell you about this person, I can do no better than the words of tribute that have already been repeated over and over again: a kind and gentle man, gentle spirit and gentle soul, sincere, honest, passionate, caring, a great sense of humor, a man who was dedicated, fair, honest, with exceptional integrity and commitment, honour and compassion, a true social worker. The words of loss express profound sorrow and a shock that moves to sadness. It does not matter how long ago he was known or for how long, the impact remains. Many of us cannot yet take in that he is no longer here somewhere doing what he did; there is a void that will remain for some time.
This was a man who saw the value in each person in their own particular way. His actions and words conveyed that every person is important and deserves to be respected and heard; we cannot know how others have experienced the world or the strength it took for them to speak their words. He asked us to consider that our words convey our experience of circumstances, and sometimes it is important to examine this. We were invited to examine the generalisations that did no service to the speaker or the subject of the words, and to put things into perspective.
My memory will always be of this man sitting back and crossing his legs as a thoughtful expression came over his face. And then he would utter the word that signalled the listener was in for some work: "so ... ". It was always an invitation to consider his thoughts; you could choose to accept or ignore, but you did not forget. And his words were a reflection of what he was and the integrity of his actions. Sure, we did not always agree as no one is completely right in all ways and in all things; but we are different because of our experience of him. I often wondered 'was this guy born this way?' because it did not seem possible that one person could achieve this level of wisdom in a single lifetime. I feel like I want to say 'stop, wait, not yet, we are not ready for this'; but it is what it is now and it is ours to consider each for ourselves what we received from our experience of knowing him.
This gentle man has moved on but he has left so many footprints for so many, the number of which will never be fully known. Is this not what we would all wish to achieve in our own way before it is our turn to head off on our next path? There is really no greater thing that can be said about our time here in this world. For me, that would seem pretty fine, like we had really rocked it out and it was all worth it. Maybe this loss is a time to reflect, to consider our own desires to strive further to achieve our own ideals of what we wish to be. This is what we can give back for what we were given. And that is what I have to say - for now.
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