Thursday, December 07, 2006

New Beginnings and the Space in Between


I have been busily knitting away on a new project, the Spanish Christening Shawl from the Folk Shawls book. It has been a little therapeutic for me. I started it this weekend, just the night before my father-in-law, Bruce, passed away. The shawl itself is a gift for my niece who is expecting a baby at the end of January. So at this time, one could say that Bruce and the baby are in something of the same state of being. One is descending to this realm while the other is passing away. It is an interesting thought in a way and one that comforts me. I wonder what they are each experiencing. Hopefully Bruce is telling the baby how wonderfully crazy our family is and giving it lots of good advice (including just how everyone is related, that might require a very large wall chart...). Maybe he is showing the baby all of the different birds that exist on the Earth. I imagine them in clouds and laughter and pinky-blue colors swirling around them.

Life and death being two sides of the same coin, I kind of consider birth to be experienced as a death in/of the spiritual world and death to be a birth into the spiritual world. It helps.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was beautiful and well-said. I will have to remember that the next time life takes an unexpected turn. Thank you.

Bogie said...

What a beautiful thought, I never thought of it that way.

Anonymous said...

you're truly poetic sensei.