7 and a half years ago, my daughter was born.

I was the first person to hold her.

The doctor hoisted her 9 pounds self into my arms and she settled into them as if she

had been there all along.

I looked down at her and then on my wife and smiled.

My mother and siblings were on the way and I couldn't wait to get home to introduce

our little girl to our small village of family and friends who'd feed us with love and laughter

and the occasional home cooked meal.

This is how it's always been welcoming life and it's not unlike how we'd say goodbye

in death.

See morning can look a lot like celebration if you look closely enough.

It's a form of communion.

At every funeral I've ever gone to, my best friends, two of my stepbrothers, my grandmothers,

aunts, uncles, we'd push into each other's arms and fill that new emptiness with love and

laughter.

There's the visiting, the reminiscing and the huge post funeral meal at the repass.

During the age of COVID-19 babies are still being born.

Everyone was already planning their flights of when they were going to come.

You know, I think people were already planning on how they were going to help us.

And loved ones, they're still dying.

But now instead of coming together around these life events, we're being told to keep

our distance.

...