The Gift of Women...

I have always had amazing women friends...and I have had some hard lessons in this very same department.  A few years ago, the universe decided, quite against my will, that people of a certain personality and type would be removed, wholesale, from my life.  There were some women I loved dearly in that not so recently departed group...

But the universe giveth also...and there have been some amazing women who have filled that relative void in my life.

Two of which were front and center in my life the other day.  One of whom I know deeply, the other a newer connection.  Both women, important and vital in my life.  What was most interesting was the way the two of them inadvertently intertwined

One is an artist and I just happened to be at her house a few months ago.  I noticed this amazing art piece of a cute little dog.  I asked her about it and she told me that she kind of, on the side, does pet portraits for people.  I immediately thought about my other friend.  While her baby’s departure was not imminent, it was coming and we all knew it. So I asked if the artist would do a portrait for me for my friend and her sweet lil dog.

Months went by and we all went about our lives.  Then the time came for my friend’s sweet lil guy to cross the rainbow bridge...and it was that exact day that my other friend showed up with the portrait!  She gave it to me to give to my friend on the day he passed.  Sometimes God’s timing is just absolute perfection.  

My friend was not up for company but I wanted her to have the portrait, something beautiful she could look at (or not) every day.  So I took it to her house thinking I would just leave it on her doorstep and then text her after I left.  I know we all grieve in different ways and sometimes we just need to be alone with our pain...

But as fate would have it, my friend called me while I was en route and changed her mind so I was able to give it to her in person.  Such a hard time, and this beautiful portrait was gifted with God’s perfect timing.

I love both these women.  I love their love for their sweet dogs. I love their tender hearts and their ability to move forward with grace, dignity and a broken heart.  Such powerful examples of how to live life, even when it is hard and we are presented with moments that just make us want to quit.

My friend is moving forward in her grief.  She is taking it one day at a time.  It is not easy.  She hurts, often.  So hard to find your way when your life has become intertwined with another’s daily habits and living.  Such a huge hole to fill...

But the kindness and talent of one women touched and altered the life of another woman.  The two haven’t even met, yet...but the kindness of each, the grace of each was bridged by me.  Nothing I orchestrated, just was present for and was able to show up for each woman in very different ways.  Isn’t that so much of life and living?  Just showing up and taking the cues from where you stand?

The pet portraiture grew up and out of my artist’s friends own grief about the passing of her beloved dog. And now she touches the lives of other people who are adrift on the stormy seas of grief.  Her artistry a comfort, a solace and a blessing to those who are now walking the path she herself walked...and still grieves.

Losing your little furry best friend is traumatic and heartrending.  It hurts, daily, so much.  There are good moments and hard moments...we plod forward, better for the love shared with our tiny, furry, unconditional love machines, but we grieve as we go.  Our lives forever made better and, for a time, harder because of the love shared.  They give us unconditional love every day of their lives, we repay that living kindness by showing up for them daily and then being there with them as they cross over to the other side.

It comforts me to envision my grandmother, sitting on a farmhouse porch.  She is there, in a rocking chair, drinking coffee, a ceiling fan blowing cool air around, waiting.  And when my pets leave this realm, that is where they go, to her farmhouse porch, to join the rank and file of all the others I have loved and lost.  She greets them with her gentle laugh and loving arms.  The recently departed is assimilated into the afterlife farm...where there is always enough love, food, tenderness and joy to go around.

This vision brings me immense comfort and connects me to all those that have come to pass, entrusted, at least for me, through my grandmother and her loving kindness well, forever.

In this case, two women who have not met have been connected through one’s talent and another’s grief.  I am grateful in this case and any other I might happen to find myself, to be a conduit for healing, for connection, for love, for respite for a grieving heart.  I love both women.  True gifts to me and my life.  And I hope me to theirs.  There is such power in female relationships...such power, such love and such grace.  And I am so grateful to be present to be able to enjoy it!

Again, still...