Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Aiyana

Photograph by Carl Jackson
cbjphoto.com
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This morning I quoted a Haitian proverb that I remembered reading way back in an article about the great physician Paul Farmer.

Dey mon, gen mon (beyond mountains, there are mountains)

It became the title of a book by Tracy Kidder about Farmer and his work in Haiti. I was talking to Carl, the Bird Photographer that I love, who is currently in Houston helping in some of the clean-up going on there after the terrible hurricane two weeks ago. It is, as you can imagine, nearly insurmountable work.

Some interpret the proverb as meaning there are inexhaustible opportunities. Others say that surmounting obstacles gives you a better view of the next.

I am so grateful to Carl and his friends for doing this work, these acts of love.

As I type this, it's only been an hour or so since a young girl, one of our beautiful and close-knit epilepsy and cannabis community here in southern California, was rolled into surgery to remove her organs for donation to those who need them. Aiyana was admitted to the hospital a few days ago and put on life support, her brain unresponsive, perhaps from a seizure or some other hideous complication of the rare disorder she had suffered from her entire short life. She was a radiant child, her mother a goddess. We are all bereft to lose her and know her mother's and siblings' heartbreak, yet are also filled with the most encompassing kind of love that you can imagine, the kind that comes from witnessing and abiding with suffering and unconditional love.



So many obstacles, yet love is endless.

Dey mon, gen mon

9 comments:

  1. Such a moving tribute to Aiyana. Loving and loved.

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  2. Even in death her love goes forward, helping to give new life to others. I am so sorry for her family and community.

    Her mother, like Carl, believes in helping others and are bright lights in this often dark world.

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  3. There is a light that never goes out. I have to believe this. Aiyana forever. We love you Angel.

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  4. Mountains beyond mountains -- a poetic truth.

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  5. This is a beautiful post, Elizabeth. Thank you for sharing this little girl and her story with us.

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  6. This is so hard, Elizabeth. May her family be comforted somehow. She was radiant in life. I imagine she still is.

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  7. There are no adequate words to offer comfort to the Family of this Child or to the Victims of the Hurricanes. Thank God for Love and Compassion, for the courageous Volunteers who are tackling the insurmountable with Great Love.

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