United by Love
On this past weekend every year for the past five years together as family, friends and community we gathered for an event called Paddle for Life. Paddle for Life is a fun-raising and fundraising event in honor of the beloved Andrew Delp, benefiting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Last year we didn’t have it because of the pandemic. Times are still too tricky for me to feel comfortable organizing a large gathering this year. So once again... hopefully next year, maybe later this summer, we just don’t know. But it is still Mental Health Awareness Month, and there are an alarming amount of good humans out there severely suffering, so many families aching. We need support and we need resources so I still want to raise money for The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and I think you do to.
The older I get the more I realize I don’t know. I don’t know why my dear friend took his life. I don’t know why there’s so much suffering in this world. I don’t know why I can’t do more good and help. I don’t know why... I don’t know why.... But one thing I do know is that love is extremely powerful. In fact I believe it to be the single most powerful thing. The more we love the better the world is. So we must continue to love from near and far. We must never forget our amazing friends, lovers, brothers, sons, sisters, aunts, uncles, teachers, mothers, fathers, grandparents that are no longer with us in the flesh. Though they have moved onto some unknown realm that we just don’t know about, we can still love them fiercely.
Andrew visits me as a cardinal in dreams and in waking life. Whether it is his spirit in a cardinal’s body, his spirit present in the wind or just my imagination alas I don’t know. But it does bring him into my physical life more often and I love that.
So since we are not together on water yet again this year let us turn to the air, to the flowering trees and birds up above as incredible reminders of love. Don’t forget to look up. Let us be brave enough to choose love over everything else in these weirdo times and remember that we are United by LOVE.
