Field Notes January 3, 2015 and a Prayer

Hail Mary full of grace

So moved by the passing of someone I don’t even know, and yet I do.
He was a son, a husband, a friend. Every mother understands when a child’s heart ceases to beat;
whether her own or someone else’s. In Tibetan Buddhism the teaching is that we were all each other’s mother
in one life or another.

gate gate parasamgate bodhi svaha

Death so close in the form of my son’s fiancé. A rawness and broken heart. Broken open and exposed revealing
new depths of compassion and empathy. It could have been him. It still could be him.
Acceptance of death, whether my son’s, my lover’s or anyone close.
No, anyone.
I keep being shown, over and over, life and death walk side by side.
Breath, no breath. Breath, no breath.
Ordinary. Extraordinary.
Side by side.

om shanti, shanti, shanti

We all die, and it never looks…