Excerpt – From Whence She Came
“There comes a point in adult life where you start to examine who you are, what you believe, why you believe it, and why you act and react this way and not that way. This is the mark of maturity. Introspection will take you only so far. In school, we learn that history explains why society acts and believes the way it does. We finally realize that this applies to us as individuals. What influences our history more than our parents?
Sure, we have always complained about this event or that event in our pasts and perhaps we blame a parent for this problem or credit a parent for that success. These are superficial narratives. In some sense, the more of these we have, the more they block a deeper understanding of the full truth of who our parents were—they substitute for and displace the truth and the full roundness of understanding.
My mom? Well, she spent the last two years of her life, after my father passed away, saying farewell to all her loved ones, slowly, with love, and compassion for them, helping them let go. She explained how she had loved her life, all of it—good and bad, and how she treasured her “extra” years to watch her sons thrive and her grandchildren grow. For these things, she was deeply grateful, but she was tired and ready to join her husband and family in paradise. She helped us see her passing as the most natural of events, which she welcomed with open arms…”