Thoughts of a girl.... I lost touch with....

I don't even know how to start this post, but I feel like I'm in a spot where I feel like I don't have a good grip on my feelings.   I found out this morning that a girl who I went to high school with died on Wednesday.    Now mind you I remember being friends with her in middle school and high school.   She was sweet and funny.  Sometimes goofy - but after high school I lost touch with a whole lot of people.   I just didn't try to stay in touch and when the reunion things came around to be honest I never really felt good about high school - who I was,  where I was in my life, or any of those things so I avoided those reunions at all costs.   Now fast forward to today a little over 12 years since I graduated from high school.  I find out this morning that Julie Steiskal, the girl I was talking about drowned trying to save a youth from her church who'd slipped & fallen.   This young girl and Julie drown in the Temperance river in northern Minnesota.   I feel conflicted and sad - that Julie died trying to help someone else. Looking  online at all the news stories,  I found Julie's website and that she did photography.   www.juliesteiskal.com  - after looking through her website today I felt that I wish I would have taken the time to keep in touch with her.   She literally lived 15 minutes from me.   Which all this time I had no idea.   I guess it just goes to show that maybe I need to be more open and also to look around me and cherish those in my life that I have been blessed with - I can't help but feel sad for Julie's family and friends who were close to her, because even though I hadn't seen her in all those years she still has that beautiful smile that I remember from being in band, choir, & school together.   I've been praying all day for Julie, her family, and her friends.   I don't know why this accident has touched me so - but I have to wonder if it's God reminding me how precious our time is everyday.   How we should cherish the ones we love the ones we have because none of us know that the next moment could be our last.   I have to have faith and believe that everything happens for a reason, it just makes me sad that someone who was always so sweet and funny could be gone in a blink of an eye trying to help another.   If any of you out there read this post and find it in your hearts to pray for Julie, her family and friends that would be wonderful.   Thank you ahead of time.  

I guess I didn't realize how much feeling I had about this almost like regret that I didn't know who she became or who she was at this point in her life.   Not that I had all the control in the situation - but my heart hurts for her family and friends.   I wish I could put my feelings into words more eloquently - but I just don't know how else to describe the way I'm feeling right now.   As the tears stream down my face,  I'm praying for peace for both families of the girls who were taken in that rushing river.