Reflections
Dear Ones,
Where do I begin…
Feeling gratitude for the journey of dark and light, struggle and ease, the anxiety and the bliss of trust and celebration. Essentially the vibrancy of life in all the array of feelings. It truly is messy! And so beautiful!
Our community was devastated by the violent death of a young 24-year-old woman, beloved by all who met her. Her name was Emma Shafer, and she carried a bright light, shining it with her incredible love of everyone and her tenacity to speak the truth to power, bold and outrageous in her belief we could do it better. Her death was so painful and tragic. Yet, how she lived her life fed a flame within us to speak our truth to power with love as the cohesive force to bind our differences and hold us in a new form.
The community gathered for a vigil in her honor at the old state capitol, wearing wild colors or white and pastel colors in her honor. The courtyard overflowed with all ages, races, and vocations. One minister said I have never seen such diversity in a gathering in Springfield. She touched so many lives by how she lived her short life from a place of love for all; everyone mattered to her, and you knew it, felt it in your bones. May her light live and grow within us and move us through our grief to carry her legacy forward. Blessings for her family and community as they find solace in their grief for this passionate being.
Our daughter gave birth to her first child, our ninth grandchild, and my first biological grandchild. Her father died in a car accident when she was four. It is quite a miracle that she gave birth to her son and is entering motherhood, a legacy to her father and me. The birth process is complicated, and even with all our expectations of wanting it a certain way, it has its course, and we must surrender in love and trust as it unfolds. There are so many lessons of pain and beauty in the big, beautiful, and messy ride of coming into form.
A friend encouraged me to talk to my wee grandson about his life before becoming human. She said to cherish the time between the veils while he remembers who his soul is and why he is here, born to these two parents who love him so much. I am sitting, rocking him, sharing the magic with him, cultivating the seeds of his remembering the wisdom of his soul's journey. The two of us gaze into each other's eyes as my emotions rise, remembering our tribe and lifetimes together.
Herein lies stories, each a legacy of transition, beauty, pain, and lessons for us to find more and more of who we are, to be in service to love, light, and truth. We are warriors finding our strength, wisdom, and guidance to live our lives in alignment with our highest purpose. We are each on this life journey, all interwoven in the tapestry of each other, connected in ways we cannot even fathom, bringing to light the highest version of our warrior self.
Much Love and Gratitude,
Carley and John