My great-aunt Rina was buried today in Israel. I got the call while at work and I was immediately overwhelmed with sorrow. I did not know my aunt very well. The ties that bind us are very strong. Her daughter and my mom were very close. I lived 2 years with Sara, Rina's sister, during my Jerusalem/Army adventure. Rina and Sara are 1 year and 3 months apart in age. "It was a very unique bond" Sara told me this evening. The sisters were close to the point of being kindred spirits. My great-aunt Sara and I had many a discussion around her kitchen table while I lived there. And to hear her hurt (not verbally expressed but within the timbre of her voice) caused such a tidal wave of emotion for me. She is such an important person in my life - a sage, a crone, a wise woman, an advisor.

It made me look at what a short time we have on this earth and as death often does, caused me to ponder our purpose during that short time. Death is always hard on the living, those left behind. Rina is at a better place, her heart and health in the last week got the better of her vitality and her fight. But it is her daughter and her sister and the family that must deal with the loss. And she was such a Strong Powerful Spirit! What a Woman! That the loss is palpable. I cry less for my personal connection to this great woman, though I would have loved to know her better. But she was so easy to be with, it was an immediate connection... I cry with compassion for my loved ones - her daughter and her sister - whom I feel as If I were the daughter or sister. Our tribe is strong, we are never alone though we may feel so.

We have the opportunity - each day - to be each other's heroes and angels. It is the purpose. To love and be loved. To be of service and promote each other's success and our humanity's success depends on being aware of our inter-connectedness, we are all one - in sorrow, in joy, and throughout the challenges that we face - we are family.