I met Catherine Marie in the tea aisle. She was looking for Yogi Decaf Green tea, I for Traditional Medicines Organic Lemon Balm. We weren’t finding any joy in our search. But then Catherine Marie chuckled and pointed to a tea called Mother’s Milk. “My late husband used to like a cold beer on Sunday morning after church and called it Mother’s Milk.” I laughed, that’s great. How long has he been gone? “Three years. He was a good man. I loved him.” How long were you together? “Thirty-nine years.” Wonderful. What was his name? “Jerry.” My dad was Jared, but everyone called him Jerry. “Oh? I’m Catherine Marie, but Jerry used to call me Marie when he thought I did something that was not very nice. Marie, Marie, he would say.”
My stepmother was Mary, I thought and didn’t say. Catherine Marie thanked me. “It helps. Talking about it. It does.” It helped me, too. Not surprisingly, Jerry and Catherine Marie got in the car and came home with me leaving me to ponder love and life and brief encounters that linger for a long while, sweet morsels of goodness piercing the boundaries between the beyond and the here and now.
Thin places are said to be places where the veil between heaven and earth is especially thin. There are renowned thin places such as Iona, Scotland, Stonehenge, England, the Canyon Lands in Utah, Mt. Shasta in California, and several others. But thin places can be experienced any place one has a heightened sense of connection, deep peace, or maybe a feeling that departed loved ones are nearby. They are sacred places of transformation and rejuvenation.
Catherine Marie reminded me that everyone we meet is grieving at some level. She also reminded me we are not disconnected from our loved ones by death. Life continues. Jerry was saying hello to us and so were my parents. They had found a thin place in the tea aisle.
Thin places are an antidote to a world which can be overwhelming, where we can feel disconnected or anxious, scared or angry. There are days I would have closed myself off to this connection never knowing what I had missed. They say that’s part of the magic of thin places; you don’t find them, they seek you when you need them.
Divine Ready 