2004-04-12 - 12:19 a.m. - Part V: Ashes to Ashes 4/9/04

We gathered around the lily garden beneath the window that she loved to sit at to oversee things in the neighborhood.

I stepped in the middle of the garden while Mike, Claire, Olivia, Sophia, Jill, Kyle, Toni, Rebecca and Matt stood on the outside of the circle of hedges that surrounds the garden.

"Thank you all for coming", I said. A small part of me felt self-conscious and a little foolish, but the bigger part of me felt this was so important for closure. And my close friends were all there – supporting me…I didn’t really know what to say, so I told my brain to shut up and spoke from my heart.

"She was the sweetest thing. I chose the song that’s playing right now because a running theme though it is time, and I had no idea how short Opal’s time was going to be here." I started getting choked up at this point, and I can’t remember what I said next…I grabbed a handful of Opal’s ashes and spread them around the lilies whose green shoots were just starting to emerge from their winter’s rest. The lilies are awakening while Opal is now sleeping.

You were made of ashes and to ashes you shall return. It was Good Friday – the last day of lent which begins on Ash Wednesday. What dies returns in another form in this circle of life.

"Some things in life may change
And some things
They stay the same

(Damien Rice – "Older Chests")

I love and miss you, Opal.

30-something - 2005-03-01
the holding back the the flow of tears - 2005-02-20
song survey - 2005-02-15
song for the day...or perhaps the year... - 2005-01-25
something new - 2005-01-24
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