Losing our Legends

I have been a very fortunate through my life because I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of the legends of the music I love so much. I have even had the opportunity to have some extended friendships with some of these giants. Yesterday I got news of one of the legends that was a great friend to me several years back, someone who wasn't too proud to help out the up and coming musicians at the time, had passed on. Sadly I lost contact several years ago because I chose to move across the country but he has always been a hero to me where ever I have been. It is so rare to only have happy, fun memories about a friend but that was the case here and I do miss him.

One thing that I keep getting constant reminders of is that we need to let those we admire know how much we appreciate them more often. I have learned that everyone in my life deserves to be elevated to the legendary status, allowing me to be able to tell of epic adventures with them to others. If a person has earned my respect and has become someone that I call a friend, that is a truly special person. Everyone deserves to have friends like the ones I have had through the years, friends that will support you in your adventures and who won't laugh at you too much when you fall. I really wish I could pay tribute to everyone of them while they are around to see how much I appreciate them, but there are a few that slip past and for that I feel remorse.

I have lost many friends over the years and it doesn't get any easier. I have lost friends to accidental causes, from illness, from their own misadventures and one of the most difficult, at their own hand. I have chosen to no longer concern myself with to details of how someone left us and I try to just appreciate that I had the opportunity to know that person. A few years ago I found out that a friend was in very poor health and things were getting worse. After she reached a certain point she begin to talk to her mother, husband and doctor about it being time to go on and that she would like her pacemaker disconnected. It took a while but she was able to get everyone to agree and she went out with her pride intact. It was really difficult to accept that she would have made that choice but after much thought I have accepted that she made the decision to take control of her end of life situation and I can't say that it was wrong.

I have been trying to focus the last few years on being a better person than I was before. This is a very difficult challenge because I have had to learn how to remove the negative thoughts and emotions from my interactions with others. This is really difficult because I not only wear my emotions on my sleeve but I have the whole suit, there is never any mystery about what kind of mood I am in. I am trying to be more like those who have given me the best memories and to bring the best attitude to the adventure that I can. Sharing a positive experience with someone is one of the things that we hold on to for the longest, I want more of these memories. Having turned around a personal health crisis I now feel like I am able to do more than I have been able to for quite a while. This is motivating me to do the things I find most important and to share them with the people I enjoy having around me.

Treat all of those in your life as a legend. If you don't have an epic tale of adventures you and a friend have been on, don't put it off. The most important thing I have learned is that I get to choose the scale with which I measure everything. While I have met a lot of the musicians that I have idolized, they have taught me that everyone is of equal importance in this world. Because of this I have chosen to start everyone off much higher up the scale than I did in the past and I am very proud to say all of my friends are legends, maybe not to anyone else but they definitely are to me.