{"id":31293,"date":"2026-01-08T08:42:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=31293"},"modified":"2026-01-14T09:24:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T14:24:35","slug":"meditation-on-continuation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/meditation-on-continuation\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditation on Continuation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 24pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Meditation on Continuation<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">When a loved one dies, they disappear forever&#8230; or so we think. But no one we\u2019ve ever loved disappears; they change form. Just because we can\u2019t see them as we could before doesn\u2019t mean they don&#8217;t exist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Think about the wind. We can\u2019t see it, yet it exists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Tulips waving in the spring breeze. The summer wind rustles the summer trees. The autumn leaves, gold and brittle, let go of a brittle branch to spin softly to the ground on a soft and gentle autumn sigh. Snowflakes dancing on winter&#8217;s cold breath.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">The wind that we cannot see touches you and touches me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">We search for a familiar face and find a flowing field of wildflowers swaying just beyond the forest. We listen for a voice and hear the creek bubbling and racing over smooth, ancient stones. We reach out for a hand and find the summer wind and midday touching our skin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">It is a quiet, tender longing; a belonging we can feel but cannot quite touch. Those we loved and who have left us behind have become the soft scent of the summer air after a dark and fearsome thunderstorm that has turned into a beautiful, glowing sunset. Still with us if only we take the time to open our souls and senses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">And so we must go on, borne on the wings of memories of those we have lost. We are the opus of their lives; always and forever in our hearts and thoughts. They were never really gone at all, and they are with us always. All we have to do to be with them again is recall a sanguine memory&#8230; or watch a golden leaf wafting slowly to the ground on a bright blue autumn day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Birth and death are one<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Pattern of repeating.<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Always hand in hand,<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Yet never really meeting.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Children light the candles<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">To the singing of the choir.<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">We all stand somewhere in between&#8230;<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Birth and funeral pyre.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meditation on Continuation When a loved one dies, they disappear forever&#8230; or so we think. But no one we\u2019ve ever loved disappears; they change form. Just because we can\u2019t see them as we could before doesn\u2019t mean they don&#8217;t exist. Think about the wind. We can\u2019t see it, yet it exists. Tulips waving in the spring breeze. The\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/meditation-on-continuation\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31293"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31362,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31293\/revisions\/31362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}