Footsteps

This week, Susan’s father passed away.  It was one of those shocks.  The call that you know will come some time in your life.  The call that you dread.  For many of us transplants to Vermont, it is the call to come home.  It’s a time for reflection, a time for remembering, and a time to reconcile the past.

Susan will bury her father today at 2pm in Virginia.  If you know her, you know how strong she is.  She comes from a family of achievers.  Her father was an economics professor, her brother a state legislator, her mother supporting the family and working at the university, and then there’s Susan.  Susan helped to build Evolution from the ground up.  She is a mother, a wife, a pre-natal, post-natal, everything baby, guru.  She is the glue that holds together a community of yogis, mothers, dancers and friends.  Every day I am amazed at her strength, energy and passion.

Who we are, who we become is this melting pot of all the influences that we have had in our lives.  Our parents are the foundation and constant force in our lives that help shape us.  Philip Cline, Susan’s father, had a lot to be proud of .  To me that is the greatest honor that we can give our parents.  We walk in their footsteps when we are young and then we go off down our own path.  Still connected, weaving in and out of their path.  Then eventually walking on our own.

Today as Susan and her brother Ben are writing a eulogy for their father’s funeral, it’s their time to reflect and honor their past.  Take a moment today, if you know Susan, send her some love, reflect on your own past, and honor those who have helped to shape your life.

Shanti

Janet