Part

“There will be a time coming to you soon when you suffer… something is going to happen and when it happens I hope and pray … that you will hold on to the reality that yes, this is part of life, this darkness is part of life, and, resurrection is life as well, and that that resurrection is granted to you, is given to you as a gift, a free gift of God in Jesus Christ, simply out of the Father’s love for you, and for no other reason. … This is life: suffering, humiliation, death and resurrection. Amen.”
—Thomas Mckenzie, Jan 14, 2018 sermon, “learning how to have life in suffering,” 3 years before dying

Just before rounding the corner of a huge beach rock I heard the words in my head “You will see a dead body.” I heard it 2 or 3 times just letting me know preparing me

Sure enough there it was a newly dead sea lion on the tideline

When I called the Marine Mammal Recovery Network to report it as we’re asked to do the woman interviewed me and soon diagnosed it was a female that had not found enough to eat and had starved out on a rock with no energy to swim just let herself into the water once and then the woman led me through the grief process though I had thought I was fine with it but this broke me open that the woman cared to say this too is part of the cycle of her life the animals will break down the body to consume it for their lives and she will eventually go back to the sea

This parting is part of it