Garth Brooks: If Tomorrow Never Comes

To lose a loved one - a person you are close to regardless of whether you are related by blood - is an awful feeling; I've lost people through death but, admittedly, I was closer to some people than others.

I lost my maternal grandfather as a teenager and my heart felt ripped in two, though I didn't allow anyone to see my tears; I didn't go to the funeral but, instead, paid a visit to his grave site after the funeral was over and school classes were finished for the day.

Though not through death, I feel I've lost my maternal grandmother who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's; she can no longer remember me. I'm thankful, however, that when she did know me, I called every couple of months and we had good conversations over the phone.

I've lost friends in the community in which I live; some of them have committed suicide and that's always the most difficult to endure because it leaves so many questions without answers. The question "Why?" is seldom far from thought.

I've lost friends to cancer; I will never see their smiling faces nor joke with them, nor hold their hand again. Never again will I take their photos. It's sad and, most tragic of all, is that it's a part of life; we never get to hold onto a person, in a tangible sense, forever.

Parents die at young ages leaving small children behind who continue to search for their parents. Elderly people pass on and the younger people wonder who they will turn to when they need advice. Small children become ill, are killed as a result of vehicular accidents and are too often abducted.

The list goes on ... and the longer the list becomes, the sadder it all seems ... the tears fall like rain and you wonder how you will ever clean up the mess your tears have made, deep in your soul where no one can truly see.

If you shed more tears than you smile; if you have more nights when you are restless than when you're resting well; if you cry for no apparent reason - please visit When Darkness Settles In.

My friends know who they are and they know I love them; I've told them countless times over the life of our friendships and I could pass on feeling content that nothing was left unsaid where my friends are concerned.

My family: it depends on what you view as a family. If it's my immediate family who live in my house - my children - they most assuredly know I love them, even if I am busy trying to provide for their needs on a daily basis.

My other family would be the family I lived with as a child: my parents, my brother and sister. I could tell them more often that I love them instead of being too busy to pick up the telephone.

Anyone else - my parents' families as children - I've learned to be selective about; anyone that I'm truly close to I refer to as my friends, who will be in my life forever...and they know I treasure them.

I listened to Garth Brooks singing, If Tomorrow Never Comes and it impacted me as never before; whether that's because I've never loved a person, and relationship, as strongly in the past as I do now, I don't know.

Whatever the case, I cannot get this song out of my mind and it's been a few months now. I keep looking at life from the perspective that I could lose anyone I love, at any given moment.

I could not help but write this poem and I could not think of a more appropriate title than that of the song I was listening to just before writing the poem you are about to read.

If Tomorrow Never Comes
My heart and soul - they feel so full;
I think of you most of the day.
My love for you is oh, so strong
And, in my mind, a song does play.

It makes me wonder about our lives,
About the love and hope we share.
I ask myself a thousand times,
"What else can I do to show I care?"

I try to do my best each day
To prove how much you mean to me.
I fill the tablets of my heart
With words that you are sure to see.

Truly, I couldn't ask for more;
You light up the darkness in my soul.
My world revolves around your love;
I see a dove and I feel whole.



Today, our dream is to live forever
Though we know that it cannot be.
One of us will be the first to leave
And the other will feel lost at sea.

I don't want that day to come,
But if it comes that I should pass
I'd like to know deep in my soul
That our love was built to last.

And so, today, I grant to you
Everything I am, all I can be.
In this life and the one beyond
Our love will always set us free.

~ Norma Budden ~
~ October 1, 2009 ~

What better way to tell someone how you feel than using words coming from your own heart!

Of course, it's wonderful when you can voice the words to those you love; however, when you struggle to find the right words or fear being interrupted, these cards may be the perfect solution for you...and they depict beautiful sunsets.



Golden Splash, as this photo is so aptly named, is a Pigeon Lake sunset photo; it continues to fill my heart with a song of thanksgiving and joy. There's something about the photo that captivates me and throws me back into another time and place - another lifetime, or so it seems. The sun spreads her rays across the sky and lake so that the human eye is basked in sheer radiance. Could anyone ever ask for a greater gift than to watch this spectacle unfold?




Darkening clouds over Pigeon Lake - it's at this point when I know the sun won't be around much longer.

Sadly, I know I will sleep through its counterpart - sunrise - but I'm thrilled at having had the opportunity to experience this particular sunset - and watching its various phases. I enjoyed the opportunity to watch today preparing to say, "Good-bye," in preparation of welcoming tomorrow with it's hopes, dreams and possibilities.