This too shall pass...

It is 8AM on the morning of departure.  Normally I'm excited to depart.  Not so much this time.  I suspect that my lack of enthusiasm is linked to all of the following: life changes, challenges in the lives of friends, the enormity of what will be faced at GC42, more strange beds and missing this little apartment and people that have become important to me... and as I was sitting this morning thinking about what lay ahead a friend reminded me of the words: "this too shall pass..."

This too shall pass.  This present moment of joy, struggle, bliss, hopefulness, despair, angst, ecstasy, misery, frustration.... (and the list goes on) ... "this to shall pass."

The reminder for me is to be fully present to the moment before it is passed.  For, even in the most despairing of moments there may be something to be learned, something that my spirit needs to hear, something that my heart needs to be touched by... And then as the moment passes I need to let go of what I cannot shape or control (which is more than I care to admit) so that I can be fully present to the next moment...

Right now I need to be present to some packing and finishing up a memorial service...

I'll likely share more once I am on the road. I'll leave Amherst by 2pm and hope to visit Jake in Glace Bay for a few hours before heading to the ferry terminal...

This afternoons Memorial Service was such a gift to my spirit.  The woman we were remembering was at one time a foster mother, fostering over 100+ children over the course of time.  The Social Worker who worked her case load was present this after noon and told a story of shopping with Jo Ann while at a conference near about the Christmas season.  She was buying seven of everything. "You only have six children" the Social Worker said to her. "Yes" Jo Ann replied, "but I don't know how many I will have Christmas Eve."  Jo Ann's daughter continued the story, "She did not wrap anything until Christmas Eve so that all were included..."

And then, arriving in Glace Bay I got to
reconnect with Jake and find out that despite all the challenge and heartbreak in his life he is collecting broken bicycles and rebuilding them and giving them to children in the community without bikes... What a kind, beautiful and generous heart!

"This too will pass..." As Jo Ann's goodness has passed so too will Jake's one day... So it is that we must honour and cherish it while we can... And perhaps each in our own way strive to be generous so that the moments in which others encounter us might be ones they cherish and honour. 

...on the Sabbath Road... (On the ferry to the Rock...)

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