Linda Ronstadt

     Even though it's been over a week since my college reunion and Mother's Day has come and gone, I keep thinking about both.  Sometimes it's a song that sparks a memory, sometimes it's a photograph.  On this day, however, it was a song.  Sung by Linda Ronstadt, the song is "A Long, Long Time."  In achingly lovely strains of music, the lyrics speak of loving someone for a long, long time, the singer telling whoever is listening that she will love them for a long, long time, that no matter what happens, she will love them nearly indefinitely.

     Why nearly indefinitely?  As the songwriter well knows, this life is finite.  Our years on this planet are not without end; we will not be here forever.  Until this day comes, however, we love, love our loved ones; we love those who are unloved, we love them, we hope, for a long, long time.
     So, too, I hope I can love my mother and college friends for a long, long time, for many more years to come, to love them until we are all gone.  After all, it is love, love in us, love in God, that drives the universe.
     And it is this love, its source in God, that will sustain us for eternity.