This Beautiful, Precious Gift
I believe some of the best surprise gifts I’ve received are in the form of humans who have unexpectedly come and, just by arriving in my life, rewire a part of me. This happens as they crack open my heart, or reveal the way that deep and loving presence always has the power to transform and awaken.
Meeting Joel Blunk and his wife Kristen were like this for me. Joel was a longtime pastor, musician, lover of nature and family, who lived for his last years in the magical land called Rolling Ridge along the Shenandoah River. Joel discovered he had a Glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer, in March 2022. He died December 1, 2024.
Those dates are only markers, though, for so much more. In the days between those dates, Joel continued to follow the same, ever present thread of love that he always had. This was the thread of love he introduced me to in the poem The Way It is, by William Stafford. It is the thread that, no matter how many times we forget to trace our path along, remains.
I suppose what I am discovering with age and the passing of great humans is that the thread of them remains, too. Even as it seems to end in the transformation of death, it comes back when I close my eyes and again find and witness the thread. These beloveds are and always have been part of something timeless and eternal.