Written in the days following the passing of my Dad, Jerry Wayne Malin

So many thoughts flood my mind. I can’t capture them all. I just want the world to stop for a minute and recognize what it just lost. But it just keeps spinning like nothing’s happened. My world has just been altered but the world goes on like nothing’s faltered. How can this be? 

Random memory of being on a playground down from my grandparents house and my dad is pushing us on the merry-go-round. Did this happen or am I making it up? If I could go back I’d bottle up our memories together and save them in a jar so that I could clearly remember how you helped me get this far. 

The world just keeps spinning like that merry-go-round, but it’s going too fast, it won’t slow down. I just can’t breathe. I want to get off and pause for a little while and I’ll remember more clearly how you helped shape my heart, my life. 

This world is jaded it just keeps spinning and it won’t stop and recognize. But my world has been altered by your departure. I stop and catch a tear or two and pause to recognize that without you life won’t be the same, but God will get me through. 

All these memories flood my mind and I pray I don’t lose any more of them over time. The day before you left this world I officiated a service for a 32 year-old man who left behind a wife and two small children. The gift of their dad was taken far too soon. I praise the Lord for the 50 years of the gift that is you, Dad. 

The world may spin like nothing has happened but my world has been altered by your absence.