Why We Are Here

Two years ago, on my 38^th birthday, I received a gift from my friend Heidi in the mail.  It was a “St. John’s Bible” datebook, with lovely images from the St. John’s Bible project.  The gift came with a note, the following which is an excerpt:

The enclosed gift is twin to one I also have.  I am planning to use mine in some sort of spiritual discipline mode, rather than date book.  Haiku-a-day?  Verse-a-day?  I would be open to partnering with you on some such project, to add accountability, and interest.  Some sort of Bible-through-the-year reading plan, with haiku response?  Or lower stakes – short response of some sort to an incident in daily life?  This is just an offer with no pressure.  Let me know if any of this resonates…

If you are reading this, you probably know my friend Heidi.  If you are reading this, you probably know that when she wrote that note she had already been diagnosed with a terminal illness.  It would be understating things to say that I was blown-away by her offer.  Even with her sickness, she still was constantly reaching out, working to grow, wanting to connect, yearning to know God.

There was no way I could say no.  So I told her, “We’re on!” and immediately went to Wikipedia to remind myself what in the world a haiku poem was.  If you need that same refresher, here you go.

I faithfully wrote a haiku every day, and if I got behind I wrote haikus for the back days.  My practice became a sort of prayer for the Heidi that I longed for, the Heidi that I pleaded would be healed.  After she died on June 24, I kept writing haikus for a while, feeling that I needed to complete this task, this commitment that I had made of a year of haikus.  One sad day, which according to my datebook was September 8, I wrote my last haiku. Depressed, I remember thinking that I didn’t need to write anymore, that I didn’t really have anyone to write to.

As I turned 40 this year, I found myself yearning to write haiku again with a friend, and wondering with sadness who that friend could be.  When one of Heidi’s other friends, Twilla, reached out to me, I suddenly thought of the haiku again, and began to wonder what those of us who loved Heidi might create together.

So why haiku together?

Well, there are a lot of reasons. 

First and foremost, Heidi greatly valued taking time to be reflective.  This project inspires all of us to do something that Heidi treasured… to take more time to reflect on our daily lives, families, blessings, and walks with God. 

Heidi loved poetry and writing.  Maybe we want to write funny or silly haikus. Or angry haikus.  Or haikus about nature.  Or haikus about old cheese, yesterday’s news or a great day.  Anything is fair game.  Heidi loved creativity and expression.

Maybe we want to haiku about Heidi, or things she loved.

I love to wonder about restoration.  When I think about this project, I think how each and every one of us has a small piece of Heidi within.  I wonder how these pieces of Heidi might reveal themselves.  Just a crazy idea... but who knows?

In the end, maybe this is just an outlet.  A little place where some of us who have lost a great friend can connect in a small way.

Here and there, I may choose to post a haiku that Heidi or I wrote from 2012.

Feel free to journey with us any way you like.  If you ever want to share a haiku, just send it to haikusforheidi@gmail.com

 

All are welcome!