Tag Archives: departure

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The Reed Flute’s Song

“Language and music are possible only because we’re empty, hollow, and separated from the source. All language is a longing for home.” ~ Coleman Barks

The Reed Flute’s Song

Stay where you are

inside such a pure, hollow note. ~ Rumi

The last few years, perhaps because of Covid and the enforced isolation, each time I say good-bye when family leaves after a visit, I am filled with sadness. The scale of the sadness is in direct proportion to the joy I just shared while we were visiting. There are no words to convey the depth of my feeling. There are no words to hold all the love I wish to pour onto my loved ones. Although I have just spent a wonderful afternoon or evening with my children, or siblings, or cousins, I immediately long for more time with them once the door is closed and they are on their way. Is this even close to the longing Rumi is expressing?

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Shadows

sept-2013-the-crone

(photo credit: rogueverbumancer.com)

The shadow of the Crone
tainted my day
Her cloak trailed
reluctantly behind her
as she slowly crossed my path,
full of compassion
for those the shadow would touch

Messages of death
collided
in their haste to be announced first

I eyed the hag warily
ugly messenger delivering ugly messages
but she continued on her way
unfazed
oblivious
to the turmoil
her news brought to my life

We enter the world knowing
we must leave one day
but somehow in our pursuit of life
this knowledge is lost
we approach return passage
with trepidation
or fear

One of the calls
announced the departure
of my Godmother
not a fairy like Cinderella’s
but a beautiful woman who
wove magic
into memories
especially from my childhood

“Tonnie” was another graceful soul
in my life for the briefest moment
a treasured friend and cousin
of my mother in law
When we met
it was as though I belonged no where else

I feel fortunate to have known them
for this brief time

Their sudden entry and exit from my world
leaves me reeling
wondering about the ways of the netherworld
what deals have been made
and are exacted when we least expect
Crone recalling what was once hers
hag doing her dirty work

Life is truly
“the blink of an eye”