Tender Remembering

This week brought love and loss, a wind of tender remembering has been flowing into my space.

A forty year friend has been in her last days. I was not able to see her and yet for many weeks I have been holding vigil, sending love, offering ease in transition and weaving my memories of her into the air around me. This deep connection with those you have loved never goes away, even when friendship has changed or drifted over the years.

She and I met when we were fifteen, we lived, learned, grew and played together for three years as roommates in a small rustic boarding school. We were different, opposite in many ways, but it worked and we forged a strong connection when we were just beginning to know who we were. Those were years of confusion and curiosity, frustration and fun…all of the ways we learn as teens, made constant by a strong friendship.

In our early twenties, we married within months of each other, lived fairly near one another, our two sets of girls were almost the same ages, so we continued to travel side by side – we talked, gathered, played, complained and spent a lot of time together throughout those early years. 

We witnessed each others lives, loved and supported one another for a long, long time. As years went on, we were more occupied with life and saw less of one another, but we were still connected. We talked, and met, less often as life was “happening” and eventually we each moved further away both literally and figuratively. Always, we were connected through the heart, regardless of time and space.

As I sit in my garden, I think of Audrey and all of the ways I have loved and known her, as friend, sister, mother to her girls, partner to her husband, adventurous, domestic, fun, complicated, intellectual, irritable, dynamic, cross, full of laughter and curious. I feel the air weaving around me and holding our lives in time, I see the small pink roses hanging over the arbor and fences of our school days…knowing that I first loved them because of her and I planted them here in my garden because of that long held connection. 

Early this week, we honored a day dedicated to mothers, and she has been the mother, sister, sacred friend I have been thinking of most. 

I have written thoughtful words to explore how we each can hold a kind of divine mother energy, “nurture, holding self and one another, in thoughts and response…extending our inner spark to friends, loved ones, animals in our lives.”

Early this week, surrounded by her beloved dogs and held by her husband, she died. Peacefully transitioning out of her body, her breath became air. 

“We are the daughters of the sky, birthed of trees and stars, earth, air, fire and water.”

So it is, and it is so.

These shared quotes and words written for mothers of all kinds, now remind me that she is in all things. She is the daughter of the sky, birthed again of trees and stars, she is earth, air, fire and water. Like my roses, love can be planted in sacred places, whether earth or art or the heart, for me to see and feel the memories that are woven into the air, those that circle me and remember, allowing me to breathe.

The JourneyCircles™ card that is shared above is very special to me, created several months ago, it speaks volumes and offers me such wisdom. I recognized my mother in this card, but it also holds a large archetypal field of letting go, transition and spirit that is so much more.

If you have lost someone you love, if memories surface that feel fragile, full or seem to overflow, know that I am holding this space for you as I share my story. If you need to be witnessed or work with grief, loss or change, please connect to explore depth coaching with me.

 In Vision,