From the Other Side

My heart sets in the West.

It is such a glorious day in Florence. The wind is chilly and the sun is warm. I am sitting on my bed writing this with the window open.

Yesterday I went to mass at San Miniato al Monte, the church where the the photo at the top of this blog was taken. The mass was held in the church's crypt and it was absolutely freezing down there. Between the temperature and the Gregorian chants I shivered and shivered.

I walked outside and I saw her again. This time the gate to the cemetery was closed and she was watching sun fall away letting lilac slide into peach and then cascade across the horizon like a coral collar. I asked that sun to continue to journey toward Carnation, WA. I asked the sun to carry my sacred shivers across the Atlantic Ocean and across the North American continent and to set somewhere in those Washingtonian woods. How can a sphere of heat safely deliver a shiver? I won't pretend to understand the science involved, but she was headed in the right direction and has demonstrated her reliability. The forecast was blessedly cloudless.

Now an echo from last spring is singing to me:
"Well I had a dream I stood beneath an orange sky, with my brother and my sister standing by..."
I do miss my sisters, the three I share genes with, but I have a great sense of company right now though I am alone. You are all standing by. I am standing here, I am standing there, and they sent the sun back to warm my face. I will go leave flames of "the light of the love I have found" around the chapels and cathedrals I pass. I have a pocket full of coins. My search continues...