I’ve been trying to put into words for the last week or so my feelings around a very dear friend crossing the veil to the other side. This morning I had a dream that she was driving a steampunk style racing car towards that line. Lizann is an amazing human being – a spiritually aware and deep person who touched so many people as a minister, teacher, writer, musician, witch, family member, confidant, and friend. We meet through a shared spiritual community, but realized that we had more in common then our pagan views. Coming from culturally similar backgrounds though states apart, we weaved together an amazing friendship and wormed our ways into each other’s hearts. It is rare that I feel I can be completely honest with someone especially in the liberal bubble that I live in. Having a person in your life that you can have open and honest conversations with is rare and a blessing. The gratitude that I feel for her support and sharing is unmeasurable. We would talk about all sorts of things over many meals. Funny how many of those meals involved whisky and bbq. The richness, depth, and breadth of topics was enlivening. We did talk about death and her cancer. Not only because of her journey, but also because of the similarity to my father’s cancer and death. Their approaches were different, but in the end, they both made their peace with it. Early on, Lizann was very clear what the various paths of this disease could lead to and she was at peace with that. This kind of surprised me. Usually people in American culture aren’t comfortable with death. I found it refreshing. Not because either of us wanted that path for her, but because it made it easier to talk about. She has had such a rich life here in this realm. A richer life then many other people combined. We talked about doing many adventures together in the future, but instead our paths will separate soon. She will go on her way to the next adventure for her. I see her walking barefoot (of course) with arms open wide into her next stage of this thing we call life. Until our souls meet again. Thank you, Lizann. I love you.
