So Many Deaths

My friend's brother just died. Another friend's brother has lung cancer, and another friend's mother recently died, and another friend's husband died last year, and another friend's father is very ill, and so is another friend's mother, who has dementia. Each of these friends is a different person, with different sorrows, but the sorrows are spread around, diffuse, shared with and among overlapping circles of family members and friends, and with the whole world. My own mother is very old, and has cancer, and macular degeneration, and very bad arthritis in her knee, along with deep bitterness, and misanthropy.

One friend recently experienced the death of her two cats. My two dogs are getting old. I miss my friends, my students, and my work at Avila University.

It's a rainy Monday morning, and the dark, damp, and gloominess of such a morning intensifies my awareness that there is so very much pain in our lives, our dyings, our deaths. And so many friends, and so very much beauty: