Relationships...

Relationships are easily made but hard to keep. Many types of relationships engulf many aspects of our lives. Whether or not we think we are social butterflies, the never-ending circle of relationships that we make and break in our life rules our lives. Through these lives that we live, we meet many people. Some of these people quickly earn that relationships status. Some of these relationships that we faction are there from the beginning (i.e. parents, grandparents, and siblings).

I am finally getting back to my house this morning. One of my most prized relationships ended early Sunday morning. My grandfather, aka ‘Papa’ has passed away. I was awakened early Sunday morning by a phone call from my father who was requesting me to hurry to my grandparents’ house. We had all been taking turns staying there to help him in the night. He was bed ridden and needed help feeding himself and other things that it takes a man to completely humble himself to ask help for. But on this morning my dad needed me to help pick my grandfather up in the bed, because he felt like he was choking.

When I walked into the house I feared the worse, but I was trying to remain optimistic. I couldn’t hide my fear after I saw my five-foot-tall grandmother crying at the hospital bed that we had shipped to his house. We did our best to help him get straight in bed, but it was too late. I watched as my best friend and grandfather left our earthly realm. As the varying collection of people who stopped at my grandparents’ house yesterday, I noticed a trend. I saw that it's not how many relationships that you get in your life, but the quality of the relationships that you have.

My grandfather was obviously a loved man, because of the vast variety of people who visited him during his sickness and the family afterwards. The majority of the people who stopped to offer their condolences today were not just family. They were people whom my grandfather had formed varying relationships with over the years. Whether these relationships were constant, or merely just an influence that has lasted throughout the ages, story after story was told.

This makes me wonder how and why certain relationships last. These relationships are probably continued because both person’s lives keep them intertwining throughout the years. So how do we make the relationships we have better? One thing that you can do to continue a relationship of any kind, is to act unto that person the way that you would want to be treated. I know that the Golden Rule has become a cliche, but it has aspects of truthfulness. If you want someone to treat you a certain way, your best bet is to treat him or her in that way.

I know that my grandfather was a good man, and by the many stories that I heard yesterday, I know that he treated people with kindness. He gave and gave and didn’t expect anything in return. This love of people has carried over to his children. It will carried on from his children to their children. And I hope that through observing the way a relationship should be, that I go through my life producing the best relationships that I can because of the example that I had set forth for me.