One hundred of us stand or sit.
Tables with water, breezes bringing
Coolness to our sweat drained bodies.
Our attention focuses as one man’s life
captures our imagination. Memories
of kindness, cello, trees, choir, painting.
Our hearts hear the message, feel the
pull to not leave this earth without living.
Create while we birth, work, love.
Long time friends, spouse, children, family
saying goodbye to one who has left
his mark in all who stand at his earthen home.
My gaze moves to all that surrounds me,
cool, calm water, lilies, phlox
blooming in this late July heat.
Soil dried from lack of rain; flowers laced
when placed at his side; ashes leaning toward earth.
A haze of smoke from distant wildfires fills our nostrils.
We laugh, we celebrate, we feel gratitude
in our current moment of living. We ponder
death and share from this truth.
In loss we feel love. In dryness we experience moisture.
In memory we experience renewed spirit.
In death we are pulled to the living.
As I wrote in my last posting, I have been making some decisions regarding offering myself once again as a spiritual companion and grief counselor.
After my formal retirement as a Grief Counselor for Allina Hospice, I traveled with Leo for a year enjoying many new explorations, foods, people, and lands. Then in 2020, we entered covid land and I took on many projects in the home, ones that had been queuing up for years. These activities were refreshing and gave me a much needed break from the long accumulation of grief stories as well as time to look back to honor and celebrate the many years of my life through photos and the writing of my life stories.
During these past couple of years, I was asked to offer a grief education and retreat day for the students at Sacred Ground, a Spiritual Direction training center in St. Paul. This one was followed by another and then a private request came for some time with me as a Spiritual Companion. Through these offerings, I was reminded of my love of one to one work and group work that allows me to be of service to others as well as nourish my soul. When I began to wonder where I could give of myself in the community, the answer was to keep giving as I have over the past 30+ years.
I now feel I am ready to once again offer myself to others for support. I will be making myself available, one or two days per week, while honoring my needs for flexibility, travel, and creative endeavors. If you are curious you can click on my new page titled Spiritual Companion/Grief Counseling.
The words, “go with the flow” seem to best describe my desire to follow where I am being led. Change takes us where it will. We can fight it or we can flow with it. Like water in the river we will get buffeted at times, our very presence will change the landscape, we will have times when we feel as if we are floating on our backs in a summer afternoon, and at other times we fear we will never touch the bottom. The following quote by Bruce Lee brings us to this place of letting go. Of being one with. Of being the blessing.
Be Water, My Friend.
Empty your Mind.
Be Formless, shapeless, like water.
You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.
You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle.
