The first
time I became aware of birth and death days touching was on October
16, 1987, the
day of my father’s death. October 16th
was the day my mother had chosen for my planned caesarean birth.
I met Elle
hours after my husband I returned from Ethiopia.
So strong was our commitment to Dare’, a community of healers, even
extreme jet lag, brain fog, emotional exhaustion couldn’t keep us away. I tried not to allow shock register in my
expression when I saw the bulge on the right side of the jaw of this beautiful
woman who had come to us for healing. She
was to become both a precious sister and wise teacher to me over the coming
years, but in that moment I saw only a woman in need calling forth the healers
in all of us.
It was
heartbreaking a few years later when Elle told us we weren’t the community she
needed to hold her at end of her life. I
wished it were otherwise, but I knew she was correct. She returned to a tiny community on the
northern CA coast precious to her earlier in her life. Her life contracted so she could pay careful
attention to her healing and to the spiritual teaching of her cancer.
