Death is near

Meet Cinderella. Cinderella Ballerina Squirrel. We met her today, at some point after her untimely (?) death, as she lay under a neighbor's car although apparently untouched by it.

The girl and I were compelled to move Ella (as we've taken to calling her) out from under the car, to decorating her with flowers from our garden "so that she doesn"t have to be alone," says the girl. We also selected a spot in our back garden (outside the fence, away from the dog) and dug a grave in which to bury our newly found, newly dead friend "so we can always remember her," said the girl.

All this in less than 24 hours after finding out that one of our son's classmates has recently and suddenly lost a parent and just an hour or so after reading the following:

"think me not morbid to be thinking of death. it is simply near."

These words were written by a friend of ours while he waits by his son's bedside, hoping the boy will wake up, hoping that his baby will be healthy ... sometime ... again. His words ring far too true. Sometimes the universe provides us with lessons of life, pain and death, new chances, healing and life. Sometimes we just need to listen and remember to love because what we have is the here and the now. Right here and now, I'm a little tired and weary of thinking about all of this, but I know that death and illness are as much a part of life as is birth. And I know sometimes we have to face it.