For Karen Berry @NannaK

Today, if all went well, Karen will not ever have to gasp for breath again. 

Those who love her have honored her decision to leave the planet. She shared on Blip her process of living, making art, struggling to breathe, and deciding when to leave. Her prince of a husband posted blips for her this past week, when she could no longer post them herself. She and Herb enjoyed 61 years of partnership (see extra on that anniversary blip). Blip was important to her, and she had the courage and generosity  to share what many hide or fear to talk about--knowing every one of us is headed in the same direction, and we might like to know how it was for her.

She spent her life making art and love and family, and she loathed cooking as much as she loved the family dogs. She made visual art, fairy gardens, photographs, and sculptures. She collected art. She loved water, boats, rowing, and their second home on an island in Canada. She celebrated her 14-year Blip Anniversary last April and her 84th birthday in September. As readers of her journal know, she has for some years been struggling with congestive heart failure. She never lost her sense of humor. 

Today I have been thinking of her since I woke up still able to breathe, that miracle. I went to a toy store, bought this elephant in her memory, and made this photograph in the rain, the stream of living beings passing by like the river of humanity that carries on. I have not learned how to use Photoshop, but Karen was great at it, and she often added elephants (from her photo safari in Africa) to her Seattle photos. I’ve taken an easier path. 

What must it be like, that ‘cottage of darkness,’ as Mary Oliver says. Will the light in Karen rejoin the Source, as Marc Chagall said? Will her energy melt into the all-that-is? We do know that if she kept her resolve, she will not have to gasp for breath again. May her curiosity lead her into that cottage of darkness with her characteristic wonder and eagerness, arms outstretched for the next discovery.