Remember Fitz

LETTER FROM FITZ - 1996

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I wlll not die an unlived llfe!

I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible,

to loosen my heart

until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance;

to live so

that which came to me as seed

goes to the next as blossom and that which came to me as blossom,

goes on as fruit.

 

(Dawna Markoual

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Christmas 1996

 

My Friends:

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When my sister's husband died in April, a friend of Marykay's sent the above words on a card. I was so touched by the words (and I so identified with the convictions they celebrate!) that I knew I would want to share them with a wider audience.

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George's death was only the first of many losses this year.

Mary Muldoon Ritter, Daniel Deskins, Richard Kearney, Jerry Hartmann, Sharon Reagan and John Houck all went home to God in 1996, and none of them died an unlived life! But it seemed as though every week brought news of another friend's, or friend's parent's, death.

Bob Dylan was right: "Too many people have died!"

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There was a lot of life and love this year as well. Friends pledged their love and devotion as spouses and partners. (My neice, Meaghan, became the first of the next generation of Fitzgeralds to take the plunge.)  As always, I went to plays and operas and concerts and found the drama on stage mirroring the joys and sorrows and passions of my own life. (Great revivals of ·WEST SIDE STORY and CAROUSEL really set my heart on fire!)

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Work at the Berkeley Emergency Food & Housing Project got a lot better as the year progressed. (A new Executive Director brought hope and healing to our troubled agency.) And I continue to discover, every single day, how much I cherish the broken, troubled, yet courageous, folks we reach out to. They are family!

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I continue to wrestle with important questions about my future.

It is time to resolve some of those. Stay tuned. I will let you know. In the meantime, as we celebrate the rebirth of light and hope, and start still another new year, keep me in your hearts. You are in mine!

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With love,

-Fitz

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