Of Transitions and Purpose

Transitions and Purpose- Some of you may have noticed that I've been a little less visible lately, there are a few reasons, but the main one is that I am in the process of comforting my 89 YR mother as she makes that final transition that comes to all living beings.

While parts of this journey are melancholy by nature (I will miss her horribly) it's largely a profound and lovely experience to share the last steps with a loved one, particularly a loved one who (as my father, who passed in 2010 had done) lived a life as rich, fulfilling and complex as my mother has done. In her day mom was quite a firecracker, a career woman when that was a lot less common. She was a social justice warrior before that term existed, volunteering at hospitals, sponsoring a Vietnamese refugee family and teaching the entire group how to drive and speak English! Mom, when she does transition, will be doing so, peaceful in the knowledge that she lived true to her purpose Elephants too, are intelligent, complex beings, with hopes, dreams and desires which we are only now coming to understand. It is a tragedy of epic proportions when any living being dies without having fulfilled their purpose, but each day we hear another story of some poor zoo, tourist, circus or temple elephant dying well before their time; collapsing alone in cement enclosures where they have spent years on display for paying customers, dropping from the weight of the saddle or with their legs in chains. What dreams have been left unfulfilled when an elephant dies? What purpose was left unattended, how much compassion has left the world? What we all do on a daily basis, signing petitions, making donations, engaging in activism, sharing and tweeting, is telling the universe loud and clear that elephant dreams DO matter, that these are precious souls that deserve to have their purpose fulfilled. We have the power to give these elephants a fighting chance at fulfilling their dreams, at the end of the day, isn't that all that matters? (re-posted from my post in Friends of Global Sanctuary for Elephants)