Paper Cuts...

Today I got up even earlier to write (7AM), must be the feeling of freedom that I am wearing tightly these days....about an hour later I got a call that cut deeply... a close friend from grad school called to inform me that my adviser/mentor/biggest advocate from graduate school made his transition!!! It was hard to hear and even harder to get back to the writing soon after, but I pressed forward hearing him in my ear asking me if what I was doing for the uplift of people.  In the often chaotic uncertainty of university of jobs, anxiety over tenure, chasing permanency with tenure,  LIFE/DEATH happens!! No matter when or how you can never prepare yourself. How do you reckon with the first loss of a mentor??? You are never trained for that but I liken it to a paper cut where it seems small (not being the loss of a parent or sibling) yet the pain is enduring, making it difficult to forget! As my aunt always says to me, the only constant in life is change!!! ---- I remain consistent with pressing forward I wrote a total of 4 hours today knowing that I do this work not for myself but the living and the those on the other side always looming close guiding me forward.