A parable from my father

My Dad

The night following the drowning in St. Michael, I sent a despondent email to my parents, asking for their guidance and support.  Both responded with loving words of encouragement and hope, and told me about the funeral services they had attended this week for my great uncle Bill, a practicing Buddhist.

My father parlayed a parable given by the monk overseeing the services, telling me the story of the oyster, and how it takes a grain of sand, a source of much irritation and pain, and turns it over and over until it creates a pearl. The parable reminds us that out of something painful can come something beautiful. He told me to find my pearl. After reading his email, I decided I would start on the task of folding one thousand paper cranes to stave off my helpless feelings and create something beautiful in the wake what had occurred.