In-Folding

Chayei Sarah
Genesis 23: 7-9 and 25: 7-11
A Cave and a Well

Grief and knowing.

The in-folding of the other into self, the retreat from the world, the nakedness of loss, the infolding of the rock around you to shield you while you grieve. The knowing that you, too, will return here to be folded in, to return to to the source... but not yet. The emergence back into life, into the living world where the other is so much a part of you that it is like she is still here, but she is not, and yet she is.

When we grieve, we mourn that which is lost, but it isn't lost, it is transformed, re-birthed in death, brought to the in-dwelling rather than the external manifestation of body.

Can you believe we will all do this?

Not only were we born, but we, too, will die, will return to the source, and those we have loved, those we have touched, those have loved us will all transform pieces of us into their own folding-in of us into them, the external to the internal, a sheltered cave of hard peace, nakedness, darkness and uncomfortable comfort.

The reassurance of presence invoked, of spirit transcendent, brought forth and remembered, we are all glimmering pieces of memory, shedding light on darkness, in life and in death, in the unfolding and the in-folding, fragments of eternity in our back pockets, in a shiny space of breath in our chests, in a smile and a love we will treasure and hold forever, until we too are folded in to the unfolding yet to come.