Translated: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
It's been a rough week. Rather, it was a terrible Sunday, when I got the news from several friends that a good friend of mine's mother had been killed in a car accident. Cyndi Trest was quite possibly the most sincerely kind and loving person I've ever met. Although I wouldn't claim to be one myself (my religious beliefs are somewhat complicated), she showed me what a true Christian really was. After a childhood/adolescence full of self-righteous, God-fearing, finger-waving congregations, Adam and the Trest family invited me into a Christian community that finally made sense to me: a group of kind and loving people who wanted to praise a kind and loving God and create a community that they could feel good about. There was(/is) no judgement, no hypocrisy, no hate in the Crosspointe community and certainly not in Ms. Cyndi Trest. She saw the world the way we all wish we could: as a beautiful place full of kind and wonderful individuals, however misguided, but never wrong or bad. She had true faith, and, with that, true love, of which I consider myself blessed to have ever been a recipient.
Many things have happened since the time when I was closest with Adam and his family, but in that time, whenever I have happened to see Ms. Cyndi (or any of the Trest family) in passing, it always feels the same: kind, warm, joyful. It breaks my heart that a woman that was such a bright light in a sometimes dim world will no longer be around to give the people in her life that feeling. But I do believe that, if anyone would agree with Mr. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, it would be Ms. Cyndi. And my heart and prayers go out to Adam and his family, more than I could ever say.
More than anything, I hope that they, and everyone else who has been affected by this tragic loss (or simply needs to be reminded of the unexpected turns that life can take), will be reminded that life isn't meant to last forever, and you never know where your road will end, so make every breath count. Ms. Cyndi did. And may that give them comfort.
And for Adam:
I messed up my rendition of this quote (left out the "bien," so it is essentially missing the "rightly"), but the thought is still there...
Life can be wonderful, but it can also be hard. May we all find solace in whatever it is that makes us feel better. That's all I got.
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