TIME to SOAR my dear friend Raven

Flowers Sent on Memorial

September 22 2023

Designed by Karen Vickers 

             

                 Raven Cyprienne Jewel

    My magical meeting of both of these women occurred almost to my lack of awareness.. I had just moved to a small island in Puget Sound in Washington State. I knew no one and did not know if I would meet the compatriots I yearned to share my life with.

      Cyprienne called to tell me Raven died May 23rd morning in a voicemail. To my regret I failed that day to answer this message, as I do with many voicemails, a resistance, yet for me to totally understand.... until today..my many recent losses and my need to let go... again... 4 times this past year... 

     As I age my family of friends are diminishing each year. This circle grows smaller in diameter and will continue until it reaches myself at the center.

                           The BIG LET GO

      At this center is where we all will join each other again. Raven would have loved the direction my art was heading and most importantly was alongside my understanding of this circle of our shared SPIRIT. This light in the CENTER has grown only a bit brighter since she moved on ahead of us.

   I have a TOTEM creature as Indigenous Peoples have coveted to become a guide on their journeys. It is the Raven. We first met on my move from Vermont back to the NW and my family roots. They graced my yard as I parked and loaded the moving van and  I would find them around the van as I came out of the motels each morning!?

    RAVEN my friend was to be a companion too and to keep going.. "all is well" no matter where it leads us to, including my leaving the island with great heart ache. My last meeting on Anderson Island with Raven foreshadowed her decline in health, as was my own health from the lockdown at that time. 

We all are connected yet at the same time must fly our own pathway till we land on the spot we can claim as only our own . Raven made her choices and I honor those even if we no longer can be in view of each other. 

             Fly Away  Far As You Wil 

                   BE AT PEACE

90 Orbits around the Sun : Gerald "Jerry" Alexander

1932 - 2022

My dearest and oldest friend crossed the road

 for the last time.

 My variation of an age-old joke askes, "which crossed the road first, the chicken or the egg?" With age comes some wisdom? Answer: "At the same time!" He acknowledged that this may have been my best joke yet to create. He said he would share that one. "My master class was complete!"

We are all connected to each other and 

"No beginning, no end."

He carried all the many jokes with him that have lightened my load over the years.

We only talked of the most important issues for us both in the last months. Not to waste any time for laughter about our country's tribulations, the worlds future and our own destinies.

The uncertain climate and political future, he would not experience, was his main concern for his grandchildren, most of all.

His next journey was very dim and dark to him, until we agreed that

he was loved and gave love.

Albert Einstein came up and I asked him if he knew why he was a physicist? "To find out how God thinks." And now with our explorations we can take a selfie of our home.

  I concluded to see what God sees.

Mirror image of a nebula from Webb Telescope

As my Blogg askes about love and God, I reminded him LOVE is our creator shining through us to give to others. I let him know in one conversation that he did not have to believe in God. Jerrys love for me kept me on this earth longer at a time I could see no other way than to "Get Out". I said this was my proof.

Many times we shared about his loss of his wife and daughter and his failures.

 What he learned may have saved my life.

Jerry was a grateful man who loved to eat, and my last contribution was my rich banana bread. As a former cook and caterer having Jerry as a neighbor was a treat to share my culinary dishes.

 

Our last meeting, along with his two surviving sons, was short and yet very sweet.

When I received the news on Labor Day afternoon. I drove out to the oceanside and reminded myself that life is so precious. Any of my heartache will now remind me that love is the source of this pain and the joy in our relationship. 

Until our next joke together

My Prayer for Jerry

"Hear O Israel"

On the one year 

Memorial September 2023

I shared with his sons

"He is with me every time I laugh out loud".. 

 

"Sheltering in place"

As August first approaches, the "Stay at home, be safe" mandate from Gov. Inslee is relaxing a bit...with reopening in some areas causing spikes in cases and deaths, not unlike other areas in our country. The US holds the highest numbers for cases and deaths in the world. [25% of deaths worldwide and USA only 5% of worlds population].

I live in a small coastal tourist town on the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula. As summer arrived with warmer weather, there is an ongoing influx of non-resident visitors filling the main street of town where I live in an apartment. A strong avoidance of social distancing and mask wearing is evident in only 50% or more of people on the streets below my  second floor window.

Being a high-risk target for the virus, I wanted to return to a southern Puget Sound island, only 5 by 6 miles in size..not even one stoplight! A small full-time population and ferry access only.

My goal was to be "safer". Both fear and a desire to "thrive" were my main two motivations..Fear of isolation far from my friends in distance and wanting to thrive with a beautiful wooded landscape and gardening to fill my hours..

As my plans slowly dismantled , one by one, my heart searched for an answer to..

"What has love got to do with it?"

 When the fear of living in this chaotic world with a pandemic , note being led by my own country, I  made a promise to find and express LOVE for GOD, myself and others.

My answer came quickly and the source was clear.

"I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings" Psalm 61:4. .. " nor the pestilence that stalks the darkness..a thousand may fall at your side.(  Death toll currently averages 1000 a day in US)..nor the plague that destroys at midday"..Psalm 91 6-7.

God's gift of deliverence is not a vaccine looming in the distant future against my own and others physical pain and possible death.

I have chosen with some courage to be present each day and open each day as a gift from God.. " I am leaving you with a gift, peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give you is a gift the world cannot give so don't be troubled or afraid." John 14:27

And at the end of each day in the evening.."In peace I will lie down and sleep for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.." Psalm 4:8

His promise, "Be still and know I am God" , Psalm 46:10 , keeps returning to my mind and heart and what follows is "Joy". Fear has no strength in the face of Love. This lamb's face is full of joy as she was carried in the right hand of the attentive Shepherd, shielded by the Lord's wing forming in the sky overhead. Only the emotions of Love and joy in this world stamp out my covid-19 fears .

 As God's word washes over me, like a rolling ocean wave, I will walk through each day as my true heart is slowly revealed by God's grace...

Amen.

All People [April 4 Post Script]

is the meaning of the word PANDEMIC. This Covid-19 has made us all equal all over this earth... the great EQUILIZER. Yet those who will be most vulnerable to dying in the next years are the elderly already in poor health, first responders in close physical contact with patients and under the emotional stress of seeing so much loss of life, the poor living in unsanitary forced communities like refugee camps, workers of essential businesses and government agencies providing basic supplies and even more of those who have chosen to disregard the lockdown, recommended face covering and distancing mandates. In these ways we are NOT EQUAL.

What has LOVE got to do with it?

What has GOD got to do with it?

I am determined not to have these questions render me speechless. I am praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to fill this posting with the comfort and wisdom I so need at this time. I sit here at my computer on this second day of the latest 30 day lockdown. Friends and myself asking , "What will happen, will we get through this?'. Friends with children to raise with an uncertain future, others in there 80's anticipating their lives ending soon without seeing their children again and husbands driving trucks across country or partners working as first responders.

I suddenly felt overwhelmed by the courage I have seen in most to face each day. As a person who has easily given up many times to almost let go of my life for good, I know now when I see this courage in others, that THIS is LOVE.

This disease will by its nature, in its finality for some, tear us all apart from each others side, from each others hands, arms of comfort, of direct expressions of love. Even in the last breaths for those dying they will be totally alone. As a hospice caregiver, this is breaking my heart for the dying and the families only able to say their last words over a phone held by a compassionate nurse. In other places in the world, poor populations do not have these blessings. They will pass away, where they lay, with family or not, infecting others at the same time.

 With LOVE as the guiding force of my life and how I strive to treat others in my life, I will continue to be in awe and humbled by this powerful teaching GOD has for us all. I am loved by my creator and protector , no matter "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no[t] Psalm 23…..I am not alone and with this virus I am being shown my connection with everyone.

April 4 Post Script

I will turn 71 on April 5, 2020. I have lived a longer life than both my parents [56, 69]. In hearing this virus will be affecting how we live our lives for the next 2-3 years, I am feeling my vulnerability, with my age, being able to survive this pandemic. The vigilance on my part to do this will require me to maintain my mental and physical health and most of all my spiritual health.  I will be as vigilant as possible in my own environment. Most of all I promise  to keep close to my loving creator that awaits me, my hand is being held and I will be guided HOME.

The Lord is my shepard, he makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the still waters, He refreshes my soul.....Psalm 23