Unwanted Phone Call

Yesterday I picked up the phone and got news you never want to hear. I learned that my good friend Victor had passed away. I had known him nearly two decades and he was like a brother to me. He was there through good times, tough times, birthdays, graduations and my wedding. Although we weren’t in touch as much as I’d like over the last few years, he was often in my thoughts. He was one of the smartest guys I knew – after college he went on to be Vice President of one of the most esteemed financial institutions in the country, one of the youngest to ever hold such a position. But he won’t be remembered for his academic and professional successes - it may sound like a cliché, but he had a heart of gold. No matter how busy he was, if you needed him, he would be on the first flight over. Victor left behind a network of friends that extends across the globe – we remember him for his humbleness, generosity, sense of humor, humanity, charitable giving and that funny laugh that no matter how bad the joke, got everyone laughing.

If you have a friend, someone you think of and haven't talked to in a while, pick up the phone, schedule lunch, have a drink. Catch up, laugh, enjoy each others company. Victor, you will be missed.

At every instant and from every side, resounds the call of Love:

We are going to sky, who wants to come with us?

We have gone to heaven, we have been the friends of the angels,

And now we will go back there, for there is our country.

We are higher than heaven, more noble than the angels:

Why not go beyond them? Our goal is the Supreme Majesty.

What has the fine pearl to do with the world of dust?

Why have you come down here? Take your baggage back. What is this place?

Luck is with us, to us is the sacrifice!...

Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.

Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.

How could this bird, born from that sea, make his dwelling here?

No, we are the pearls from the bosom of the sea, it is there that we dwell:

Otherwise how could the wave succeed to the wave that comes from the soul?

The wave named 'Am I not your Lord' has come, it has broken the vessel of the body;

And when the vessel is broken, the vision comes back, and the union with Him.

-- Rumi