Have you ever loved a person you've not met by reading their obituary?! This morning at breakfast, while reading the obituaries (a practice steeped in my family of origin) I fell in love with the deceased woman. In fact, I thought about what was said about her life at numerous moments in my day.
"Her unselfconscious aptitude, quiet intelligence, playful sense of humor and earnest compassion won her friends around the world...She was blessed to do the work she loved...In all her professional and academic success, she never lost sight of the things that she loved and that made her happy...she loved to travel...she loved the sea...she also found solace in the west, especially the Grand Tetons--to paraphrase Wallace Stegner, the largeness and the clarity took the scales from her eyes...She loved animals. While she loved all of God's creatures, great and small, she had a special affinity for terriers. There were very few points in her life whe she did not have a funny, devoted and occassionally bizarre little dog as her companion...She was a voracious reader...She loved gadgets; from smart phones to e-readers and laptops, she never outgrew the simple joy of a new toy....Most of all she loved her family. She was their greatest advocate, supporter and friend. To the very end of her time on earth, she maintained a glowing sense of humor and an easy grace that many never achieve at the height of their health...she died while being held by her loved ones; her last words were "I love you."
I'll just mention that this woman was an Episcopal priest, a first woman president of the Warden College of Preachers at the Washington National Cathedral... and a lenghty list chronicled numerous other ways she served the world.
What a way to live!!What a BIG "yes" to life!!
