I will regognize in everyone my dearest Friend
Date: June 4, 2007
This past weekend, I went to the memorial service of my friend John Murray, who died at the age of 73. It was held in Phoenix at the clubhouse of the 55-and-over apartment complex where John spent the last six months of his life. There were a lot of people there, from family members to old friends from Sedona like me to a large contingent of elderly folks who lived at the complex.
The service consisted solely of people telling stories about John. A theme quickly emerged: John was gentle and kind to everyone, and though he was in constant pain due to health issues, he was always there with a warm smile and a helping hand, no matter what. A friend of mine who went to the same support group as John talked about how John took him under his wing; John gently confronted my friend's tendency to focus on attractive women in the group with the humorous question: "Are you hugging the ugly ones?" A man who met John by chance when they shared the same hospital room talked about how John helped him to recover. A woman shared about how John offered to walk her home one night because it was "too dark." Another woman said that when she and a friend didn't have a car one Sunday morning, he offered to drive them to church, even though he hadn't been planning to go to that church. A man shared how John, without letting anyone know he was doing it, came in early to set up the weekly shuffleboard game.
Someone who spoke near the end summed it up: No matter whom he was with, whether he had known the person for fifty years or five minutes, John treated that person as if he or she were his best friend. I immediately thought of a line from the Workbook that describes how we see other people when we look upon the world with true perception: "I will recognize in everyone my dearest Friend" (W-pI.60.3:5). That was John Murray's life in a single sentence. He was a Course student, and though he often felt that he had failed in his aspiration to become a healer, in truth he brought healing to everyone he met, through the most "ordinary" acts of kindness, helpfulness, and love. He was and is a great inspiration to me. God bless you, John, my dearest friend.
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