...are of supreme importance

Tonight, Just a little over an hour ago, I learned of the death of a dear friend of my family.  The loss of Mr. Evans is raw and unfolding in my heart as I write this.  There is something to express here, that simply would not have the same flavor if I waited to digest it.

The things that were so wonderful about my friend are not lost in his death.  In this raw moment, I feel the love, humor and compassion that flowed so effortlessly from his being.  I do not feel it coming to me from outside, but rather arising from inside my heart, my hara, my soul.  Mr. Evans is in my being.  Having connected with me in such an open and loving way in my life, he infused his compassion and joy into my being.  Or rather, he nurtured it in me.

I did not see Mr. Evans on a regular basis.  He knew me when I was a baby.  Through my life, it was often years between visits.  The visits themselves were casual and brief.  However, my family and I did travel to stay with him and his wife in the summer a couple of years ago.  There were no major sight seeing agendas or other legs to the journey.  We simple went to spend time with them.  We played cards, walked in the woods, shared meals, sent swimming and sat and talked.  Looking back, it was spectacular.  I have been to Disney, gone on a cruise, seen Las Vegas and toured the sights of Ottawa.  I have drive across the country and climbed mountains.  But this one visit was far more spectacular.  For here, we just came together, as we were, and shared our experience.  They opened their home to us and we all shared our lives.  However briefly, we shared our lives.  In the sharing, the most basic and beautiful parts of ourselves connected.  (Mr. and Mrs. Evans, I thank you deeply for this.)

This is all any of us can do.  We are here very briefly, and in that time we might run from sight to sight, and we might seek out some spectacular experiences, but out marvelous activity is in the sharing of our lives.  The sharing nurtures love, joy and and compassion.

After I lose someone in my life, and experience an amplified affinity for those I encounter that is raw and tender.  As the person leaves my life bodily, the love joy and compassion that I shared with them flows out of me into all my other relationships.  It does not matter if it is a a friend, my Dad, the child of a co-worker or someone in my community whom I have never met.  Cultivating that love, joy and compassion with all beings is the greatest work.  The way of the Bodhisattva.