Posted by Kelli Joan Bennett
Today was a big day for two different people in my life for two different reasons. For one friend it was her 31st birthday today. She was celebrating with cocktails by 10am in Palm Springs. For my other friend it was the three-year anniversary of her beloved husband’s transition from this world into the next. She spent the day with her daughter “mixing the sad with the glad” and Remembering Forward.
I found myself on an emotional roller coaster throughout the day. Pondering the exciting life ahead for my young friend. Pondering the impact my other friend’s husband had on me during my brief encounters with him—how much grace and love and light he emitted. And how my friend is continuing to shine her husband’s light, and her own love and light, on the world through her inspiring website on grief and grieving, The Kitchen Widow.
A birthday. A death day. Opposite ends of the spectrum, yes, but both a reason to celebrate and honor and give thanks for a life. And both giving me a healthy dose of perspective and gratitude and reverence for life—my own and yours.
“Birth and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state. There is as little reason to deplore the one as there is to be pleased over the other.” —Mahatma Gandhi
Until tomorrow, create from what you have…a life to celebrate.
Just beautiful.
Thank you, Cindy!