Find this & more of Kai Skye’s work at FlyingEdna.com. Kai was formerly known as Brian Andreas, known for Storypeople.
Before dawn 21 years ago today the call came that my mother had died. It was not a surprise; she’d been sick for the better part of a year.
I left home in 1972. It was my mother’s fondest wish that I return, but I had a career and had built a life–several, really–and to be honest, as Bob Dylan once said, I was born a long way from where I’m supposed to be.
Still with me
My mother may not be here in the flesh, but she has been with me every single day of my life, including the years after her death. I carry her heart with me everywhere I go. I have thought about her at the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Sistine Chapel and the slums of Mumbai. She’s been top of my mind in Maui, Paris and the European Christmas markets. And of course she is with me every time I go someplace we explored together in northern California.
She would be thrilled that I live in our home town.part time. I’m sad to not have the pleasure of her company in the physical realm.
Before they buried her, I took a white rose from the spray on her casket. I carried it, too, with me all these many years and it’s with me now, in our hometown. Today, I’ll find my way to a place near Lake Ontario where I can remember her and scatter those now dried rose petals. Because, Kai Skye is right: love doesn’t end simply because someone is gone..
Loss is loss and grief is grief
Maybe you haven’t lost a loved one to death yet. Maybe you feel another loss. The loss of the hopes and dreams of a romantic love that can never be. A friend you thought was forever and now isn’t.
I’ve had those losses, too.
But here’s the truth: That love is still there. You don’t stop feeling it just because they’re gone. Love is a one-person thing. You feel it. It doesn’t matter how they feel or even what they do. It doesn’t matter if they’re here.
It only matters that you feel it.
So maybe today (or another day this month) you’ll find a way to memorialize that love you still feel for someone no longer in your life. You might like to honor your love for them with some kind of ritual, like lighting a candle, burning a stick of sage or saying a prayer. You can create art in their memory. Or frame a photo. Or even write them a poem or a letter. You can even burn the letter, sending your loving wishes for them up to the universe. Even just saying the words, “I carry you with me” is enough.
It’s an honor and a privilege to carry the love we feel for others all our days. And to that end, I’m reminded of a poem I love by e e cummings:
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart) i am never without it(anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet) i want no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
This post reminds me of a post I wrote after I lost my dad saying that relationships leave fingerprints on our hearts.You carry your mother’s memory with grace and eternal love.
I was thinking very similar thoughts these last several days – nineteen years since my mom’s passing. I am thankful to have known such good love I am never without. Glad for that for you and your mom as well. ?
The holidays especially bring those memories front and center. We remember the best of times and smile. And hopefully we make new memories for ourselves, and those we share our life with at the time.
Thank you for this. I’ve been thinking a lot of my dad lately who passed away over five years ago. And you’re right. Love doesn’t go away. Maybe it somehow keeps us connected.
Here you’ll find my blog, some of my essays, published writing, and my solo performances. There’s also a link to my Etsy shop for healing and grief tools offered through A Healing Spirit.
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Beautiful and so touching. Missing my mom especially this week!
Thanks,Peggy, for letting me know you enjoyed it. May your mom’s memory be a blessing….
Yea, the holidays increases the grief, but the memories are comforting.
Yes, toni…they can be!
This post reminds me of a post I wrote after I lost my dad saying that relationships leave fingerprints on our hearts.You carry your mother’s memory with grace and eternal love.
Fingerprints are a good way of describing those feelings.
I was thinking very similar thoughts these last several days – nineteen years since my mom’s passing. I am thankful to have known such good love I am never without. Glad for that for you and your mom as well. ?
Yes, we are both lucky that way.
I miss my mom who died in 2005. She was an important figure in my life.
The loss of a mother is almost a rite of passage. It’s big.
Both my mom and dad died in 2013 but they were 89 and 90. I felt like they had lived a full life. I miss them alot but knowing that made it easier.
A life well lived makes all the difference in grief, doesn’t it?
The holidays especially bring those memories front and center. We remember the best of times and smile. And hopefully we make new memories for ourselves, and those we share our life with at the time.
Making new memories, yes. Love that.
Thank you for this. I’ve been thinking a lot of my dad lately who passed away over five years ago. And you’re right. Love doesn’t go away. Maybe it somehow keeps us connected.
Oh, it absolutely does, Laurie.
Our loved ones are so precious and we feel more when they are gone. Very heart touching.