“Sense how
Even the smooth stones ache
With stories of their own
In the shuddering light of day.”
~Scott Hastie
St. Elmo, Colorado
I lost a dear friend to covid yesterday.
After I hung up the phone from hearing the shocking news from her broken-hearted husband, I began thinking about how inadequate words are at a time like this. We rely on well-intentioned platitudes to break down a mountain of pain and sorrow into smaller fragments that we can somehow wrap our brains around, but we still end up buried in a landslide of unanswered questions and the jagged edges of reality. Our best hope is that the rivers of time will gradually smooth the hardness of these events, perhaps allowing us to sit on the banks of happier memories under the sunshine of love shared, and have our spirits restored. Until then, we hug. We care. We wait…
