Always
I’m gone now, but please, do not mourn me. Instead, if I’ve touched your life in any small measure, celebrate with thankfulness for the time I spent with you. Take my ashes and let’s ride the skies, drift through the clouds, and visit the one place I always felt in the depth of my heart to be my home. Cross the vast ocean and take me home to Italy, the place where I know my soul has always lingered. Once there, rent a villa and be comfortable – make yourself at home. Enjoy yourself. Drink wine and Negronis (don’t forget the orange slice), partake your fill of pasta, cheese, gelato, and cannolis, allow as much Renaissance art as possible (especially Michelangelo) to enrapture your soul, and beneath a star-filled sky, listen to the wondrous music of Puccini until it brings you to tears. In all these things, I will be beside you. I will experience your endeavors vicariously from the beyond, and they will bring me such peace and profound joy to know you are there, in Italy surrounded by my love.
Travel the country and little by little, leave a bit of me wherever you know I’d be happy. You will not lose me in doing this, but instead, you will allow my soul an opening to flourish and replenish. Know that only then will my dreams – and more – have been fulfilled.
Once you’re back in your home, look for me for I will visit often. I always want to be assured you’re happy and well, and remind you of my love that transcends the spectrum of time.
Until then, you may find me in your dreams or in the smallest, simplest of things: an orange butterfly, a sunflower, a crawling caterpillar, a hummingbird, a cooing infant, or a playful kitten.
Do not mourn for you are still loved.
Always.