{"id":23313,"date":"2013-11-23T22:56:45","date_gmt":"2013-11-24T04:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=23313"},"modified":"2016-04-30T09:56:28","modified_gmt":"2016-04-30T15:56:28","slug":"absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=23313","title":{"rendered":"Absence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samhain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Thanksgiving Moon<\/p>\n

Driving home from the grocery store today I went past the street down which Dick Mestrich used to live. \u00a0Used to live in the sense that he died a couple of years ago. \u00a0It felt like there was a hole there at the end of the street, a place where my knowing went and came back with a false report, an absence.<\/p>\n

It led me to think what it would be like if I still lived in my hometown of Alexandria, a town of around 5,000. \u00a0I knew people on most streets, classmates, friends of classmates, friends of my parents, business owners, people from church. \u00a0By now, at age 66, I can drive past many homes where my knowing would report an absence. \u00a0Jim Ragsdale out on Harrison Street. \u00a0Pancreatic Cancer. \u00a0Richard Lawson and Richard Porter out south on Harrison, Alexandria’s main street. \u00a0Richard Lawson from injuries sustained in Vietnam, Richard Porter from a fast-moving disease. \u00a0Sherry Basset. \u00a0Dennis Sizelove, died\"Class<\/a> in Vietnam. \u00a0Even Karl Kyle the owner of the funeral home that sat diagonally from our house and where my mom’s funeral was held. \u00a0Mom and Dad, of course.<\/p>\n

As we get older the list gets longer, places where our knowing no longer functions, a hole in our social fabric.<\/p>\n

Regina Schmidt, too. \u00a0Here. \u00a0Moon. \u00a0I’m aware that this is how it has been and how it will be. \u00a0Death changes life even for the living. \u00a0Why this came up for me today, I don’t know. But it did.<\/p>\n

One more thing. \u00a0It feels ok. \u00a0Death taught me its deeply personal lesson long, long ago when my mother died. \u00a0I’ve known since then that life is a precious gift, one that can be lost with no forewarning. \u00a0This life, this unexplainable awareness and mobility and love, is ours on loan. \u00a0The universe wants its elements back, has another use for them.<\/p>\n

This holiday I’m thankful for their organization in myself and the people I know, and in the people I’ve known. \u00a0A deeply weird opportunity, life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samhain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Thanksgiving Moon Driving home from the grocery store today I went past the street down which Dick Mestrich used to live. \u00a0Used to live in the sense that he … Continue reading Absence<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,11,243,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith-and-spirituality","category-friends","category-memories","category-woolly-mammoths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23313"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35562,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23313\/revisions\/35562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}