Life and suffering. Lightness and darkness. To engage in both is to live a full life. We can not have one without the other.
Today felt like this. It felt like this full circle, this completeness.
It was a day to go to our local VA Facility. I am always stilled into observance when we go to a VA Facility. I know I have mentioned this in the past, because it leaves such an impact. Today was no different. It was busy where we waited by the pharmacy and the prosthetics department. Mostly men in varying states of slow demise and pride. Hats proclaim their war, their era...their rank. T-shirts announce their values and opinions.
It was busy there today. Men (mostly) moving back and forth with broken bodies and the tools to help them continue in their lives. A plethora of walkers, canes and scooters...oxygen on the go and and abundance of pouch styles or plastic bags to carry what they need. An elder with bright blue eyes uses a rubber band to keep his wallet shut. A senior with a spine, which has begun to furl closed, in opposition to the ferns which unfurl in the Spring. He sits hunched over, his walker close to his knees, where he can maneuver his belongings. He wears his battered Korean War hat, sergeant stripes and Purple Heart patches hanging on for dear life. He appears spent...old, until another Vet sits down next to him and their conversation brings him to life. It is only then that his friendliness and humor are witnessed. Another, much younger Vet limps along pushing his walker, which is weighed down with bags and a backpack. His face wears the exhaustion of his life, his pace tells the tale.
It was busy there today.
On the return trip home, we finally get back to O'Melveny Park, after many weeks of wanting to. There is life and death there as well. The creek flows and babbles loudly, while the hawks call out their plaintive cry...crows click and call and chase, circling in close to the hawks. Bullies of the sky or coyote tricksters or merely birds doing their thing with no connection to our anthropomorphic thoughts.A few airplanes and a helicopter fly over, but otherwise it is quiet and still. Visiting humans spaced far apart and not in the way of one another.
Old growth trees with numerous lemons or tangerines, an abundant number of bumps, lumps and ripples. Rocks from another time rise up from the earth before tumbling down the green hillsides. A shock of brightness in the mid-day sun.
Bare bones reaching for the sky, new buds barely seen.
One Eucalyptus, trunk full of warts, reaching skyward and reaching for its neighbor. Holding hands I claim, fighting over the sky, says he.
The trees are ancient looking in places and filled with new greens in the sunlight elsewhere. But they are all quiet today, no breeze stirs them...they stand as a landing spot to the many songbirds. While much is happening...much living and growing...they are not busy. They are peaceful companions after the busyness and noise of the VA Facility.
We stroll, sit, pause and breathe...we look and listen and chat quietly together.
A lone turkey vulture circles as we head back to our daily life. We take it slow. At this stage, there is no hurry.
Later in the afternoon, another conversation with someone arrises. We touched on life and death and the necessity of both in one's life. For without one, can we appreciate the other?Late in the day, while doing some research, I came across this poem from an old memorial program. It seemed so fitting for not only the conversation I'd just had, but for the day I'd had as well. Spending time with the Vets and the Trees...the people and in nature...living my life the best way I know how.
To the Living
To the living –
Death is a wound. Its name is grief.
Its companion is loneliness.
Whenever it comes – whatever its guise,
Even when there are no tears –
Death is a wound.
But death belongs to life –
as night belongs to day
as darkness belongs to light –
as shadows belong to substance –
As the fallen leaf to the tree, Death belongs to life.
It is not our purpose to live forever.
It is only our purpose to live.
It is no added merit that a person lives long.
It is of merit only that one’s life is good.
-From Gates of Awe
How do you embrace both the darkness and the light?
May you hold it all side-by-side
May you engage and embrace with the world around you
May you live a good life
xo
Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2026
