The Circle of Life...

Michael Woo's memorial service is this morning. At just 31 years old, he died suddenly from respiratory complications just before surgery on a cancerous kidney. He was a gentle giant in every way, a loving, special-needs guy that had a big heart and loved a party. I'd given him one of my flutes a few years ago - don't know if he ever tooted on it, but he loved music. His sister Alison asked me to play a song for him in the service, which I'm honored and humbled to do.

I said 'died', though I myself don't use the word because we don't 'die' at all...we transform and cross-over, with only our 'car' left behind to return to dust. We are not our 'cars'...we are our Souls, spirits, energy fields that, like matter, can neither be created or destroyed. Michael parked his car early, and he, like all of us, actually knew when it was he needed to do that. We know this before we're born, but lose memory of that once we take on a human form. 'Death' (there's that word again!) isn't to be feared, nor is it to be mourned. It's a wonderful time for a celebration, and that's exactly what the Woo family wants. Aho!

Alison said Mike was an 'original' and that my writing a song for just this occasion would be just like him. As I meditated and mulled over this, I was rather bombarded with images and information on what to say and play...and so this morning I'll honor him with "Michael's Bumper Sticker" (hence my car motif above)...


We each need to take care of our 'cars'...they won't last forever, but they'll get us where we need to go...and even for me there is no better fitting bumper sticker for my car than the one above!

And in that mindset I'll go from the service to help Gene home from the hospital. What a happy occasion for him to be able to come home to his castle, to sleep in his own bed, watch his own TV, be with his wife more than just a couple of hours each day, and have the love of his precious two dachsunds all over him. It will make for quite the day in the ol' emotional realm for them, and for all of us.

Friday I'll deal with my next issue, which is yet ANOTHER dead RIDGID oscillating belt sander that simply quit running yesterday. Grrrrrr. I'm in the middle of a large batch of flutes and this is one of the critical time-saving tools...while it's under warranty it will take a month to fix it, potentially, so to save myself the stress I'll worry about what I'll do later today. Got just a few fish to fry in the meantime!