This came through my email account two weeks ago Monday:

Atholton SDA Church Email Notice — February 9, 2009

Jackie Gair, a long-time Atholton member, passed away on Monday morning.

The viewing will be held at the Fleck Funeral Home, 7601 Sandy Spring Road, Laurel, MD this Thursday, February 12, from 12:30 - 1:30 PM. Following this, there will be a graveside service for family and close friends at George Washington Cemetery on Riggs Road in Adelphi, MD. There will be no memorial/funeral service at the Atholton Church.

Please continue to remember the family in prayer during this difficult time.

Thus ends a life.

Now is as good a time as any to finish one of the many blog posts languishing in draft status: link coming when I actually finish it.

Yesterday on the way home from circle time at the library, Alexei and I stopped at a bridge to throw some sticks into the water. We stood there for a good long while and I was mesmerized by the ripples our small sticks made in the stream. Mesmerized is probably the wrong word; fascination is more along the lines of what I felt. Something so simple and natural, but inherently beautiful.

Here is an excerpt from a book I’m in the process of re-reading now.

In karate there is an image that’s used to define the position of perfect readiness: “mind like water.” Imagine throwing a pebble into a still pond. How does the water respond? The answer is, totally appropriate to the force and mass of the input; then it returns to calm. It doesn’t overreact or underreact.

— David Allen

Relevance? Mrs. Gair’s passing is not all that different from Alexei throwing a stick into Sligo Creek. How Mrs. Gair’s life intertwined in that of others seems to parallel how my son’s small stick made a mark on the water. Both were present for a time, changed things around them, and then faded into memory. No doubt Mrs. Gair’s ripples will long be felt by the world through her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so-on.

Jacquelyn J. Gair

Farewell, neighbor. Until one day we meet again where the silver ripples lap on heaven’s shore, goodbye.