So Blessed and So Sad...Missing Two Amazing Women in My Life!

Kind Heart
Fierce Mind
Brave Spirit

Clear  and simple...I have a choice. I can be saturated in sadness and loss,
or I can be grateful for the time I knew them and had with them. I can concentrate on the fact that in all probability there will never be someone 
like  them again in my life, or I can know in my heart-of-hearts that while these
soul sisters are one of a kind women, and changed my mind and heart, that
God will bring others into my life that will also bring  joy and growth and learning and stretching and changing, changing at the deepest level.

It is hard to lose people who mean the world to me.
It is hard to adjust to the space in my heart that they have occupied.
Living, breathing occupied.
They will always be in my heart...but truth be told, not in quite the same way.
They have each left a lasting legacy of caring and wisdom in my mind and heart. 

While I knew them in two entirely different contexts, they were an answer to prayer.

These women warriors
These truth tellers
These authentic soul-bearers

These kind-hearted, fierce-minded, brave-spirited women...

who touched my life at the deepest level.
These kindred spirits sharing our journeys while here.
Because of both of you I breathe differently, see life differently and I am
more kind-hearted, fierce-minded, and brave-spirited myself.

One is a neighbor, the other a national treasure.
One will still be on the planet, but is moving to another location.
The other has, after 86 years, gone home to be with God.

How grateful I am that they both touched my life.
I am not the same because I knew them.

Maya Angelou  has the word angel in her name
She was an angel who graced our culture and changed my heart.

I fell in love with Maya Angelou many, many years ago when I saw her face and read her poetry. Maya talking from the heart, touched my heart.
Her indominable spirit, her overcoming of personal tragedy
Every line on her gorgeous face a record of her sojourn on God's earth.

She mothered me in a way I needed mothering.
Her poems... so poignantly describing the African American experience,
also spoke to my soul, a privileged white girl from the north.

Maya helped to grow my own spirit of social justice.
I see her in the walk and the talk of my black sisters and brothers at my church.

Her clear enunciation of language brought it to life.
Her word choices painted pictures in my heart.
Universal words she sang as they rolled off her mighty lips.

As she said...Love Liberates. Hear her powerful words and see her gorgeous face...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7dxnQQEpXs

Maya Angelou died and our nation mourns and celebrates all she gave us...
books like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, poems like And Still I Rise.
I read and reread her works, all of them. Heart-changers they are.

And then there is Sarah, my dear friend Sarah Chauhan...
It is so hard to lose Maya Angelou, my friend from afar, but to lose my sweet
neighbor-friend, my stop-across-the-way friend, my I-get-your-heart friend...
well, it's almost too much for my heart to bare.

Sarah, and Raj, and Lance, and Ryker, and Lauren, and Ronin...are all
moving to San Diego. The house is sold. The things are packed. The job
that might keep them here, didn't come through. And so they are moving.

Chosen family... they are.
Know you at a trusting, put out the truth level...they are.
Irreplaceable...they are.

And my tears, rolling down my face, at expected and unexpected moments
Are a testament to what Sarah has meant to me...still means to me.

A year and a half was just not long enough.
I feel sadness in my bones that they are leaving.
I will be grateful my whole life that I knew them.

That I knew Sarah, really knew Sarah at a heart level.
Sarah, just like Maya, has a kind heart, fierce mind and brave spirit.

Such a brave spirit my sweet friend has.
I will miss her.
I will see her again.
But I will miss her ...across the way, only a few steps from here...miss her.
And I am not the same because I knew her.

Maya and Sarah.
I am so blessed and I so sad.

I will love you both always and I will miss you both forever.
God Bless!
Love Linda