Rainy Day ...

" ... we are not on this earth to accumulate victories, things, and experiences, but to be wittled and sandpapered until what's left is who we truly are."
Arianna Huffington, On Becoming Fearless

It's been raining all night and should continue most of today. It's a slow, steady rain. The kind that seeps into the earth, allowing flowers and trees to drink their fill. The kind that rootlets search for in the summer, when no rain is in sight and the grass browns in searing sun. The kind that saturates, permeates, penetrates ... like grief.

I have a friend who recently lost her sister to breast cancer. Another friend's mother has been in an assisted living facility for the past two years. She will be moved to the alzheimers unit in that facility within a day or so. My friend says she doesn't know who is having the worst time of it, she or her mother.

Everything is always in flux. Within our bodies cells die and renew themselves on a daily basis. Change is pervasive. As the earth spins, the seasons change, the years turn and we find ourselves marveling at where we've been and what will happen next. We wish the bad, sad moments away, reasoning that once we get through this rough patch the going will be smooth, only to find another challenge. Someone else I know calls those times, "more damned learning experiences!"

"If you don't have the wound of a broken heart, how can you know you're alive? If you have no broken heart, how do know who you are? Have been? Ever have been?"
Edward Albee, The Play About The Baby