Buried Jazz Today & Signs of Spirit
Yesterday, after Cat got home from work, she and Mike and I all found a spot to bury Jazz. The curly willow in back is from the house I lived in before moving to Ohio for the last time, and so it has my energy from long ago attached to it. As we were standing there discussing if by the curly willow, an Admiral butterfly, in the same colors as Jazz's coat, came right to the willow and dance-fluttered all over it's branches while we were standing there. Butterflies represent the soul or spirit, so I said, "Well, that cinches it! This will be her final resting place."
Mike dug 3.5 deep hole that evening and so today it was ready. I waited for Cat to get home from work first, but then I brought out the body in a box and we went to the hole and I did most of the dirt layers. Mike helped me again and got a bunch of rocks from a pile we have in the woods. Big, rounded rocks, most of them-- the size of a human heart or so, each one.
I made an egg-shaped cairn over the loose dirt (also to discourage coyotes from digging her up!) and was pleased with the result. Oddly, I didn't cry much at that point. It just felt like a thing that had to be done.
Here's the location and the tree-- you can see the rock pile by the willow:
And here's the cairn:
The worst is over. I still get waves of grief, but I know to let it come so it can go... I have to ride the waves like a surfer, and I don't mind. My cat was my closest family for fifteen and a half years. I should be sad! But it's not like I can help it.
LATER: Mike got pics from a woman who had UFO and owl experiences (he gets emails all the time, almost every day) and the cat in the pics had an image of a tortoiseshell cat face! It doesn't look that much like Jazz, but as synch winks go-- it's a profound one. Look at the chest/shoulder of the cat below.
I had a couple other little bits of weirdness that popped up the day she died and the day we buried her, so I guess her passing is duly noted in the spirit world.
Mike dug 3.5 deep hole that evening and so today it was ready. I waited for Cat to get home from work first, but then I brought out the body in a box and we went to the hole and I did most of the dirt layers. Mike helped me again and got a bunch of rocks from a pile we have in the woods. Big, rounded rocks, most of them-- the size of a human heart or so, each one.
I made an egg-shaped cairn over the loose dirt (also to discourage coyotes from digging her up!) and was pleased with the result. Oddly, I didn't cry much at that point. It just felt like a thing that had to be done.
Here's the location and the tree-- you can see the rock pile by the willow:
And here's the cairn:
The worst is over. I still get waves of grief, but I know to let it come so it can go... I have to ride the waves like a surfer, and I don't mind. My cat was my closest family for fifteen and a half years. I should be sad! But it's not like I can help it.
LATER: Mike got pics from a woman who had UFO and owl experiences (he gets emails all the time, almost every day) and the cat in the pics had an image of a tortoiseshell cat face! It doesn't look that much like Jazz, but as synch winks go-- it's a profound one. Look at the chest/shoulder of the cat below.
I had a couple other little bits of weirdness that popped up the day she died and the day we buried her, so I guess her passing is duly noted in the spirit world.