Tomorrow Linda will have been gone for three years. I am going to post something I wrote about her several months ago. For the next 10 or so days I will be in northern Arizona with two of my daughters,
This isn’t really about ovarian cancer at all,
nor is it an attempt to be funny. Off and on over the years I have been
interested in Navajo culture. So far most of what I know comes from
reading the marvelous “Leaphorn-Chee” novels, by Tony Hillerman. I have
made an effort to read more “serious” things, but to no avail. Hillerman
remains my only guide.
In his books Hillerman relates that the Navajo
Way consist in part of “walking in beauty”. I don’t pretend to fully
comprehend that concept; all my life I have “walked” in a state of constant striving and inner turmoil. But I
have come to realize that “walking in beauty” exactly describes Linda; on her journey through life she created beauty all around her, wherever she happened to be!
Those of you who knew her well will
understand. Even when she contracted ovarian cancer she continued on, in
beauty. There wasn’t a Sing that could save her, nor any trick of modern
medicine. But she walked on to the end, in beauty.
In her obituary I wrote that, with her death,
the world would be a darker place. For
those of us who knew her well, it certainly is.
Beautiful, Myrl. Safe travels. It will be good for you to be with Karen and Kristen tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteVery nice, Dad. I miss her very much.
ReplyDeleteThe closing prayer from the Navajo Way Blessing Ceremony:
ReplyDeleteIn beauty may I walk
All day long, may I walk
Through returning seasons, may I walk
On the trail marked with pollen, may I walk
With grasshoppers around my feet, may I walk
With dew about my feet, may I walk
With beauty, may I walk
With beauty before me, may I walk
With beauty behind me, may I walk
With beauty all around me, may I walk
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, may I walk
In old age, walking on a trail of beauty, livng again, may I walk
It is finished in beauty
It is finished in beauty
Carolyn has described her as possessing "effortless grace". That is certainly true.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very beautiful tribute you wrote. As I'm walking through my own change in lifestyle, I miss her more than ever. She always heard me.
ReplyDeleteI am reading “Grant”, by Ron Chernow. It is a magnificent book – and a massive one as well. I am 150 pages into it and the Civil War has just begun! I look forward to many, many more happy hours.
ReplyDeleteJohn Rawlins was an important, almost essential friend and aide to Grant. He lost his young wife very early, to tuberculosis. Of her he said many years later, “few of earth’s daughters were so lovely, none in Heaven stands nearer the throne”.
It would be nice to have that sort of eloquence.