My aunt (and godmother) passed away peacefully in her sleep earlier this week at age 70. It was a shock to us all. I was a lector at the funeral mass, and in looking at various readings, came across the one below. Although we didn’t use it, it really resonated with me.
Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the varieties and realities of your existence:
the bliss of growth,
the glory of action,
the splendour of beauty.
For yesterday is already a dream,
and tomorrow is only a vision,
But today, well-lived,
makes every yesterday a dream of happiness,
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day!
Such is the salutation of the dawn.
–attributed to Kalidasa, India’s greatest Sanskrit poet and dramatist c. 400 C.E.
Thoughts from 23rd Street 