sunday grace: things to do with your hands when someone you love is dying
- hang a bright new string of prayer flags
- pick up a pencil and write write write
- place them on your thighs, palm down, in the mudra of calm abiding. sit. breathe. abide.
- rummage through boxes of ribbons and beads and finally start putting together that dream catcher. you are a maker because of her.
- type "grief" and "meditation" into google and discover this. listen. listen again. and again.
- pet your dogs
- chop vegetables
- finger paint
- cut up a hundred tiny bits of colorful paper and create a collage, the first art she taught you.
- pick up that box of tissues to take with you in the car. even though you think you are going to hold it together, you will inevitably lose it at the farmers market, at the stoplight, when an old journey song plays on the radio
- pack your bag, so that at least one thing is ready when it's time to go
- let someone hold them
- when the grief and confusion feel too heavy in your body, shake them vigorously to get it out
- plant a new tree. a deep red japanese maple, the color of her birthstone
- pick up a book and spend the afternoon reading. be grateful for the love of story that she instilled in you.
- light a candle
- wrap them around a warm mug of chai, feel and taste every single mug of cocoa and soup she ever made to comfort you when you were sick or having a bad day
- sift through the photographs and revisit a life well lived.
- quietly throw them up in surrender.
