pruning?

Hi Maggie,

It is a sweet, sad, poignant moment in my life.  Two very old, frail, powerhouse women are getting ready to pass.  Families are vigiling.  It is so full of emotion...

I remember having the honor of sitting with my mother-in-law's mother as she was passing, or having a chance to talk, to tell her how important she was.  As she spoke with me, she also spoke with her son who had passed a few years earlier (Remember when he dropped trou to show you his shingles when he found out you were in med school?)  She was between worlds, and so I was close. I could feel the glimmer.  It was amazing.

One is an older friend.  Her great niece is a friend...She is who is keeping me in the loop.  She shared a message with me...My older friend said she wished she had met me earlier so we could have had more adventures together.  That touched me...it went deep in my soul...it has colored my whole day.

She went into ICU this morning, and they are not expecting her to leave.  I have been holding her in the Light for days.  She is graceful. This will be okay...

The other...the other I don't know well.  I met her several times as an activist - although she over-everythinged me.  I met her once as family.  That was only recently.  Just after, she fell, broke her hip, and was hospitalized.  She has been home for a few weeks.  But she has been in failing health - physically and mentally for some time.

Her granddaughter is my youngest son's beloved. I know you met her.  Her family is close-knit and supportive - often my role-models.

This weekend, my son and two of the matriarch's grandsons will build her coffin - a simple pine box with rope handles.

I am in awe of my son.

We are blessed to have a natural cemetery here. Bodies are not embalmed. They are tended by the family.  Bodies are carried to the grave in a simple box or on a bier. I have told my children - I want the bier. I want a linden planted on my grave.  I want to feed the trees.  Only my middle son is practical enough to hear me.  The others freak out a little.

The funerals are a raw and terrible beauty. We, the survivors who have to go on without a loved one, we feel it, like a sacrament.

Maybe this is what the eclipse brought.  And I wonder - who is the third?

Love and teary hugs from Clare