Okay so since the last time I was posting regularly there has been a lot of stuff going on. First and foremost I want to offer my deepest condolences and heartfelt sorrow for the loss of my Aunt Mary. Mary's death last Saturday was a great shock to everyone and I know that this must be a hard time for all the immediate family. This loss feels especially difficult because we were all together just recently as a family for Sarah Anderson's (my cousin) wedding. Although I know that this is a tragic loss, I feel a small sense of relief for Mary as I now know her physical struggles are over and she is at peace. As a family and community we can honor her memory by acknowledging our most beautiful memories of her and then by learning from her life's most trying challenges. Her joys were our joys, her sorrows were our sorrows, her memories were our memories, her failures were our failures, her successes were our successes, and now her loss is our loss. The most important thing to take from the death of a loved one is the reminder of our own precious mortality. We are still here, she is not. Let us all embrace life's challenges with a new enthusiasm.
One of my most favorite literary passages is an exerpt from John Donne's Meditations. I feel it is expecially appropriate for this moment.
"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
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