I am aware of these glistening iridescent bubbles sliding over my hands as warm water flows between each finger. The taste of maple syrup sweetness still mingling in my mouth after a breakfast with Daya and Adire of pancakes. Now I stand at this sink, I have stood here so many times but today an orchestra of sensations touching each nerve with heightened sensation and adoration. The slight sing songy voice of Daya in the background as she checks on her pill bugs and the clinking of glasses filled with water as Adrie prepares her space for Zoom Art lessons, serenade my washing. These moments so sacred to me today.
I began my day as I have been for the past months reading a "Prayer for the Dead". Now globally the Earth has lost 293,000 human beings to Covid-19. As I picture each person and recite Byron Ballard's words, "Hail the traveler! All those remembered in love, in honor, live on. Farewell, o best loved, O fairest, Farewell,"* I see a traveler in the form of a mother, father, daughter, son, sister, brother, grandparent in my mind. So today these sensations of what would appear a redundant everyday sometimes hated task of washing breakfast dishes is sacred for me. As I wash each dish the memories of my breakfast with these two little people dance through my mind: the spilling of too much syrup, the smiles with teeth dressed in fruit spread, the discussions that are light and airy of dreams and wishes for the day and the energy I held with them, that I was blessed to hold with them. I also see those whom today will grieve in place of pancake memory filled breakfasts because there is an empty chair as their loved one travels on. So these soapy dishes and wet aged hands give thanks with each drenched sponge scrub. Thank you for my life and these everyday moments that pass without notice. Today I notice you, I notice you with love and sorrow for all those who sit in grief. I remember you too this morning traveler and the loved and lost loves you have left behind. You live on today in my sacred awareness.
*Ballard, H Byron. Earthworks: Ceremony in Tower Time. Smith Bridge Press, May 2018.