Photography by Christine Whitelaw (c)
From the words of Sue, Napkinwriter:
It has been three days now since I’ve learned of Christine’s passing. I am alone in grief. The tears of my heart have now reached the windows of my eyes and I let them flow. I, too, as Christine instructed Stuart, will not blubber. I walk in the consciousness that an enormously large “footprint” of light on earth has passed beyond time and space. I know in my heartspace that Christine’s light remains and I will immerse myself in it in the days to come. Her grace-giving smile is ever ready to bring into my view.
This is my beautiful friend, Christine Whitelaw. Everyone is graced to know her, if only through her photographic images — the ones OF her and the ones she lived her life taking and posting on
http://dadirridreaming.wordpress.com/
Her son, Toby, created a most gracious collage of points of light in her life that can be viewed on her website under Christine’s Service.
My dreams of you, Christine, continue.
Christine Whitelaw Photography (c)
From the words of Stuart, husband, lover, companion on the journey…at Christine’s service:
“The morning before the service, I walked with Mitchell and Casey on the beach. As we reached the northern end, we saw a white faced heron fly from shag rock across the water straight towards us. It landed very close and did not take off as we walked back. As we reached the southern end on the way home, the white breasted sea eagle flew over us, really low.
And the legacy is called love.
That is what she gave, and that is what she has left us all.
The chance to be in the bubble of love that enveloped the two of us in our last 24 hours together. Christine is an intensely spiritual being, but her beliefs didn’t fit into any tidy box. She visited cathedrals but was disillusioned with organized religion.
She believed (along with many physicists) that everything is vibration. She made vibrational essences at special places and usually gave them away.
She is beautiful, gentle and wise — a poet, a yogi, an intuitive healer, a Doctor of Philosophy, a writer and a wonderful photographer of wildlife and the natural world. Her gentle voice was healing by itself. ‘
We walked on the beach before breakfast last Tuesday and experienced dadirri together. And we talked about how lucky we are to be in this place with this amazing community.
We went to the farmers market in the afternoon and she was greeted and hugged by so many people.
We talked about how lucky we are to have three wonderful sons and daughters in law, and four grandkids who will one day save the world.
They have all been my rocks for the past week, but I have to especially thank Toby who beat the second ambulance to our place and helped with the terror of that morning only a week ago.
Last Tuesday, I said to Christine, ‘I hope you are having the life you want because I am. I am where I want to be and with the person I want to be with.’
She said, ‘me too’.
We didn’t always say those things. We could have just as easily been squabbling over some silly thing — usually about me cooking too much food.
We had 45 extraordinary and beautiful years together. Who can be sad at that?
One of the people who had been outside during the service (we could only fit 200 inside) told me that the whole time that the service was in progress, that the sea eagle had hovered far overhead.
When I arrived home from the wake, a neighbor rushed up to me and said,
‘did you see it, did you see it?’
When the cars left the chapel, the sea eagle swooped down and led us out, and up the road’.”
******
Photos are property of Christine Whitelaw (c)
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