The most majestic scene I have ever witnessed

Was not a mama bear and her cubs

crossing my path at sunrise

Or breathing the crisp air

At 10,000 ft

Above earth

It wasn’t a meteor shower

From a grassy field

Late at night

All of these were breathtaking

Awe-inspiring

And will forever remain

Captured in my mind

But the most stunning

And delicate of sights

I have ever beheld

Was also one of the most excruciating moments

In another person’s life

It was that of life unfolding before me, through death

It was that of the unconditional love

From a daughter

For her dying mother

As she breathed

Her very last breaths

One Christmas night

As both she and I held

Her mother’s hands

Her daughter leaned down

To where

Their foreheads met

She closed her eyes

And in her silence

She granted permission

For her mother to go

I felt her anguish

Her love

And her letting go

I was as a fly on the wall

Invisible in the moment

But blessed with the honor

Of witnessing it all

And As I drove home from that scene

In the cascading

Consuming

Silence of the snow

I realized

That one of the most magnificent things we will ever birth

Is the capacity of our hearts

To love

And the potency of our pain