Day 241 – Second Star to the Right, and Straight on ’til Morning

16

“I’ll teach you how to jump on the wind’s back, and then away we go.” ~ Peter Pan

August 28, 2016 – It’s unlike me to be at a loss for words, but I cannot find any appropriate ones today.

Life is short and fragile for all of us, and for some, it’s cut tragically shorter.

A Celebration of Life may be a time to celebrate a life well lived, to comfort those closest, just by being there to say, “We are all here for you. We have nothing but our words and our warm hugs, though we’d any of us gladly do anything to change the circumstances”.

It is a time for grief stricken goodbyes, for comfort in companionship, and a time for reflection for all present and afar. In some cases, such as this, the gathering can also be a time for bewilderment, for anger, and for barely contained rage.

I’ve experienced significant loss in recent years, but my personal losses seem to pale in comparison to this.

A life hardly yet lived, a life that touched so many, a life that still had so much to give.

The loss was not mine, but I feel so keenly for friends, I cannot begin to imagine their pain, and that has crushed me, for them.

There is usually a natural order to the world. When that order is disrupted, there are no words…

And what you find when you are a helpless bystander to such senseless loss, is that it jolts you back a few steps and reminds you that connections are important, and that when they have slipped a bit, it’s important to find the glue that binds them together again.

Because we all need some sanity in a world in which some things make no sense at all.

The great tragedy is that as a life returns a state of fundamental energy, as that energy is freed to explore the vastness of the Universe, those left behind must learn navigate a new path forwards.

“How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind?”

~ Carson McCullers