The Hollow Days

            I wasn’t finding much that was helpful for dealing with grief in my Christian community. Maybe this was because Ev died unexpectedly, or because her dying in her 40s left us in shock and made each of us feel vulnerable, as if any of us could die at any time. So I went looking at other religions to see what they did. The grief traditions in Judaism helped me the most, and this is what I understand about them.

When the Spirit Opens

“I don’t know when the spirit opens itself to the river.” Kathleen Dean Moore

            I wondered about this movement of the spirit when I sat by Evelyn’s bed in the ICU years ago. Was she still present, or had she departed and now existed somewhere else? Neurological tests done yesterday indicated no activity in her brain. The doctors said the machines were keeping her body alive until they could repeat the tests 24 hours later.