Longest Night of the Year: 2013 Reflections (part two)

“Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.”  -Victor Hugo

What better way to ease into another set of 2013 Reflections than with luscious references to food?

This past year, I resumed my life as a ‘good cooker.’  This family badge of honor, proudly reactivated now that I have a kitchen at my disposal, has provided nourishment to both body and soul.

~ 4/13  The unfolding of my ‘horse gentler’ skills learned during our time of horse rescue being placed within a new context of use.  While making a final pilgrimage to visit Terry’s Mother in Dallas (just a week before she passed away) our ‘nephew’ Jeremy helped with a fundraiser for the ‘Horses for Heroes’ project in nearby Rocky Top Ranch.  Himself a Wounded Warrior, he opened my eyes to this realm of horse therapy for returning veterans and their families.

Shortly thereafter, to my delight, I discovered a local established horse therapy group beginning to implement a Wounded Warriors component into their program offerings.  I immediately contacted them and not only signed on as an active volunteer, but got in on the ground floor as part of the initial group starting the WW program.  In addition, I work regularly with the other students.  While my primary role is in enabling the horse(s) to be their very best while in use during therapy, I enjoy the blessings of working with the various students and their families, other volunteers sharing my passion, the therapists and owners of the stable…

We all worked hard to put on the First Annual Bethlehem Therapy Horse Show this past November.

 
Really, really cool.
 
 
~  The many loved ones who passed on this year.  Among those: Terry’s mom, my sister-in-law’s father, Terry’s favorite Aunt, a cousin’s husband & mother, and S.K. one of our own generation dying after a valiant 5 year battle with cancer.
Sometime during my first dark South Carolina winter last year, I discovered the following piece by The Airborne Toxic Event.  It puts into musical expression all that has been in my heart since my Ma’s passing back in February 2007.  One phrase in particular encapsulated my feelings about her and others close to me but now gone:

“…the weight of their loss feels like the weight of the sun.”

Ma’s special presence along with a few select others, (Grandma Bruno, dear little Justice, a favorite Aunt, our lost children, others…) has always been a large part of my personal ‘agrodolce vita.’
Listening to this on ‘repeat’ throughout those seemingly endless sunless days, served to help complete a work started by the Master’s gentle touch.
Ma’s presence and the presence of those special others are now more accurately expressed as whispering echoes of hearty laughter, twirls of dancing by the light of full color, and warm touches of remembrance; the weight of their loss has finally fallen into the weight of the Son.
I wish for you the same in your own journey through the inevitable grieving we all face during the course of our life path.

TIMELESS – THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT with THE CALDER QUARTET

As she disappeared alone in the darkness,
I felt her spirit stay in the room.
And I wished that our lives were just endless
Cause it’s all too short, and I’m leaving soon.

I want to hold on to all of the people I lost,
I want to keep them with me.
We will never part.

We are, we are,
We are timeless, timeless.
Everything we have, we have,
Everything oh my god.
You are, you are,
The only thing that makes me feel like,
I can live forever, forever.
With you, my love.

I see her, they run through the tall grass
Such thoughtless minds, I wish I was thoughtless too
Well this hole in my heart, that I cannot abide
Just want you to stay with me tonight.

We are, we are
We are timeless, timeless
Everything we have, we have,
Everything oh my god.
You are, you are,
The only thing that makes me feel like,
I can live forever, forever
With you-

Just help me through this moment
After everything I told you
How the weight of their loss feels like the weight of the sun.
I see their faces near me,
I hear their voices callin’,
It was like their lives were over before they begun.

Oh ooohoohohoh oh