~ a story yet to tell…

To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal,
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
(Mary Oliver, American Poet 1935 – )

Truly, it is a blessing and gift to read just the right passage at just the right time to bring solace, hope, balance, and strength.  We are given such words when we need them the most.

Last weekend I took the photo above while sitting silent, looking up to the perfect summer sky and praying for my Aunt’s peaceful passage.  A few days later I read this beautiful Mary Oliver passage in a message I receive daily called “A Common Meditation for All Souls”...my cousin read it as well and wrote to me saying: “Today’s meditation is wonderful, don’t you think…?”  A time when she needed those exact words.  She knew it would only be a matter of days, maybe even hours, until she’d witness the final passage of her mother, my Aunt.  I had the honor and gift of seeing my Aunt several times in this past year.  January’s winter.  June’s start of summer.  July at mid-summer.  Each time invited trusted conversation and the keen recognition of the importance of our many intertwined years.  Time stood still in each of the visits and allowed us reflection from a new lens each time.  Nellie was a doer and a giver who finally learned to receive in these last few months.  And by receiving from those who loved her she acknowledged all that she was blessed with on her journey over 95 years.  What more can we ask for in this life but that everything is said and heard and made peace with before our final moment.  I said no final goodbye, because I actually couldn’t and didn’t have to.  I believe that those we are connected to stay with us, always… beyond this life that we know and into the next.

Until we meet again, I will never forget.  

In memory of Nellie Varga ~ April 15, 1920 – August 9, 2015