Legacy

You are the thread, I am the needle

Let us stick together the stories of your life

You pick the fabric of each memory

Select the vibrant colours and varied textures

Collected from the dusty rag bag in the laundry room

Or clipped from the love-worn clothing too precious to discard

At the back of your closet

Trust me to take the thread of your life

Through the compassionate eye of my needle

And sew together the fabric squares

Into a magnificent quilt

That honours and illuminates your life

Wraps you in warmth that relieves suffering

And is itself a square in the larger quilt of time

A continuing thread that connects you

With ancestors and descendants

In this way I bear sacred witness

To your passage from life to death