Like all April 7ths, today was rather aimless for me. I decided to go to work because it was as good a place as any to spend the day. A few there know the significance of the date -- most do not.
After Mass at Noon, I decided to walk to the Watergate at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. It had been four years since I had come here on this particular date. I wrote about that visit
here which is where I explained the significance of this spot. It is, in essence, the spot where John's spirit left this world for the next. It is here that John experienced irreversible brain stem compression resulting in brain death as he lay in the back of an ambulance transporting him to the hospital in DC.
I almost decided not to go today because the forecast was for imminent showers. I figured it was a dreary enough day without slogging through the rain.
Go I did, however, making my way through the throngs of tourists experiencing our nation's capital on their spring break -- including lots of families with young children going to museums on the Mall as well as older veterans making their way to the WWII and the Vietnam Memorials. As I got nearer to the Lincoln Memorial I felt a warmth overcome me and it took a few seconds for me to recognize that it was the sun beaming down on me. Rather than the predicated rain, I looked up and saw in an otherwise cloud-filled sky a patch of blue sky through which the sun brightly shone.
Thus, when I got to the terraced steps on the Watergate and sat down, unlike my visit in 2011 and unlike April 7, 2007, I was not at this very spot in the gloomy darkness of night. Rather, while there were clouds all around me, there was also the brightness of the life nurturing power of the sun directly overhead.
As such, this spot once again proved to be a fitting symbol of the past eight years -- one of the many lessons of life I have learned. Specifically, that much as we may think joy and grief are opposites, they can actually exist side-by-side. They are both manifestations of profound love. And while I will forever grieve John's death, I have also been blessed with great joy over the past eight years -- to include the marriage of Mike & Gina, the birth of our grandchildren, Jes meeting and falling in love with Donny, and getting to celebrate 40 years of marriage with the woman I love as much today as I ever did.
Today is the Tuesday in the Octave of Easter. The Gospel for today opens with Mary Magdalene staying outside the tomb of Jesus weeping. Eventually, she recognizes the resurrected Jesus who tells the weeping Mary, "Stop holding on to me...".
It is so hard to let go, but then again we really don't have a choice in the matter because our John, too, had to go to the Father.
Photos from the Watergate from April 7, 2011 and today are below.
As an aside, I walked past the spot on the Mall where JW used to play kickball. Fittingly enough, the exact spot has been planted with a grove of cherry trees.
