for a friend - fred jones
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Torrey Pines State Reserves - Spring 2008
Dear Friends,
As all of you already know, my (our) friend, Raymund Orias, passed away on June 28th, 2008, a week after his birthday. I found out in El Salvador and was deeply disappointed in not being able to attend his funeral. For weeks I looked at his facebook and myspace wall and was shown over and over again how much he was loved. While reading the comments posted to and about him, I had mixed feelings about writing about my friendship with Ray and felt there was no proper way to do it without my words being on public display. Also, I haven't comprehended his passing until this week and I decided I did want to express a few words about him to the people that did know him and had the honor of calling him a friend. Everytime I hung out with Ray the one question he asked me everytime was "What do you want in life?". Of course, I always knew the answer to his question and always answered "to be happy and never limited to what I want in life". Ray, also, had the same answer when I ask him the same question. He would say that he wanted to finish his pursuits in life and to always keep in touch with his friends. And when he meant friends, he meant lifetime friends because no matter how much time had passed, he never gave up on our friendship. I have known Raymund since the 7th grade. Since then, he has taught me many things such as playing tennis, good choices in music, the hiking trails of San Diego, and how to listen.
Many people always say that when someone dies, they become inspired to live life the way they want. I feel its the opposite with him. I believed he already inspired me to live the life I want and despite his death, he led a fulfilled life of loving himself and others. I don't use the word "inspirational" often but I could honestly say that Ray was most inspirational person to many people including me. With this post, I'm accepting the fact that he was indeed one of my good friends and I really miss him and I am very thankful for all the time I spent with him.
Amen.