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I wanted to take the time to reach out to all of you lovely people who responded to my post yesterday, emailed or called. I told Bo this morning, “Sweetie, even though you aren’t physically here, people are loving your beautiful spirit from afar. How cool is that?”

Yesterday, was a tough day emotionally, as you can imagine. But the energy shifted when I was standing in the parking lot at Publix Super Market, letting go of Bo’s balloon. (I was determined to release them in a wide open space this year, so they didn’t get stuck in the trees!)

A little girl sat in her mother’s grocery basket a few feet in front of me. She watched as the balloons escaped my hands and flew above her head. She turned to her mom and pointed upward. “Oh, oh. Balloons gone.” Her mom looked up, turned and said, “I’m so sorry.” I explained my actions were intentional. Today was my son’s birthday in heaven.  Her eyes watered, she tried to speak but no words came. Then she pulled a box of cupcakes out of her cart and said, “It’s my little girl’s birthday today. Would you like to have a cupcake?” Touched by her compassionate words, I tapped my heart, thanked her and told her to keep them for her little girl’s party.

Turning, I watched the balloons ascend, dancing in the wind. A man’s voice bellowed out of his car window. “OMG, your balloons got away.” Again, I explained the situation. Together we watched the ten balloons–four white, five green (Bo whispered in my ear the colors he wanted)and one mylar balloon stamped with a monkey hanging from a tree holding a banana– fly higher and higher in complete silence, as if both of us were caught up in the sacredness of the moment. “Think they are heading north, Ma’am, straight to heaven,” he uttered, softly and sweetly. “Won’t be long now until your son has his balloons for his party!” Touched, I nodded.

I took a few steps forward wanting to be alone with my thoughts, with my boy. I opened my heart and whispered into the wind, “Thank you Bo for being in my life, for filling my  heart with more joy than I ever imagined was possible to feel in one lifetime. And thank you God for the complete strangers who joined me in my celebration, the celebration of the life of a child, gone too soon. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

The day started out with an unbearable heaviness in my heart but ended in complete joy, thanks to three complete strangers with hearts of gold! And all of you. Namaste.

Picture above from my book, BELIEVE. Watercolor by Pattie Welek Hall.