"Heath Ledger: Dead at 28"

It floors me when people my own age die.

That's what happened when I opened up my browser and the newslines announced Heath Ledger's death. I couldn't believe it! Minutes later, my husband emailed me a link to a simliar newstory, which confirmed the tragedy. I then did as many others might have yesterday - scoured the internet for more information, saddened as different articles reflected on Heath's promising career and young child. I am still wondering if his death was accidental... or not.

I remember feeling this way before. Stunned. Disappointed. A little like I lost a piece of my childhood. It was four years ago when I found out Jonathan Brandis had killed himself. I grew up watching him in movies and on tv - he was my first "celebrity crush", and I even had a poster of him in my bedroom when I was in middle school. For days after I read the small newstory online, I couldn't stop thinking about how depressed and lonely he must've felt to feel like the only solution was death. I couldn't believe someone who had only lived a couple decades didn't want to see what many more decades would bring... how things could change in less than a year. The same feelings emanated after reading earlier this month about Brad Renfro's death at 25 years old - he was another actor I had first seen as a child.

My friend RC wrote a post about the "death of celebrities". In it, I appreciated his last line:

Heath, I don't know what to say about your death, other than I hope that those you left behind will find what you did not.

* * *

And then, just as abruptly as the news broke of his unexpected death, the rest of the world moves on. And while I know that's good and right and how life works, it makes me reexamine my own life... What impact am I having on the world around me? Am I in a holding pattern until my next "life phase" instead of doing what matters because I'm alive today? What a gift we have in life! To grow and learn, to love and feel real emotions, and to experience the scope of Creation. I pray we can all live to our fullest potential - every day.