Between Life and Death

Monica: I woke up to a blanket of fog outside that lasted all day. It put me in a listless mood, so I spent much of the day shuffling around the house, reading, and curled up on the couch with Michael watching several hours of a fascinating courtroom docudrama (The Staircase). About an hour before sunset, the fog lifted and the sun emerged, casting its golden light on the tender new leaves emerging from the tips of the cherry tree up the hill.

Evelyn: Back to my Soulcare classes and a weekly visit to Dandelion Cafe for a vegan $5 dinner special. The base of the tree in their courtyard is in constant flux with added gifts, messages, tokens, poems, wishes, Buddhas, and pictures placed thoughtfully around and dangling from branches. A small poem caught my eye, titled "The Human Road," cradled between crystals and rocks and sprinkled with the residue of earthen matter. The poem quite simply whispered the truths about life and death. Amidst the loss last week of Cathleen, I couldn't help but be drawn to the words dancing between "life" and "death" and the sheer simplicity of how we come and go. It reminds me, yet again, how unpredictable life really is, and the need to really appreciate all the amazing people in my life while I am here, and conscious, and able to hold a hand, or speak a smile.