Festivals of the Dead

I notice how by some calculations this is the beginning of Obon, the traditional festival of the dead in Japan.

Feels particularly appropriate for several reasons.

For one, today Jan and I will be making the big push to finish clearing out the house in Newton ahead of a cleaning tomorrow.

For another, I’m conducting the last service I’m likely to do as minister of the First Unitarian Society in Newton, a memorial service for a long time and beloved member of the congregation.

I’ve just put the amen on the eulogy and will run it out in a couple of minutes.

And here is a pause where I’m finding the enormity of it all for our lives washing over me.

Sort of a double whammy, it feels like. If you add in the house cleaning, a triple whammy…

So, we’re still in the bardo of change, but the weight is also shifted pretty heavily to our new life. We’re quickly settling into our little three room apartment on the East Side of Providence, waiting on closing on the Pawtucket house. We think we’ve found the grocery stores we’ll be frequenting (until Trader Joe’s comes in a couple of months…). We’re exploring local coffee shops and I expect a couple will end up being offices for me.

Next weekend we hope to actually have a little time off, maybe drive around a bit of our new home state.

Of course right now it’s still the mad dash.

And I’m hanging with ghosts…