I put the Haggadah - the book I took from his shelves - and the prayer book he used when he performed weddings (It was a Machzor, by the way. It must have been the perfect size to hold and had all of his new-couple speeches tucked inside - in both English and Spanish) on a shelf in my office.
It didn't quite fit, and as I slid it on the shelf - the picture next to it fell over, the heart rocks had to be moved, and the animal fetishes needed to be lifted and placed on top of those new things on my shelf. "Everything just shifts over," I thought.
And, yes. Yes, it does. With death, everything shifts. Nothing is - nor will it ever be - as it was. Sometimes that's really painful. Sometimes it's filled with sadness - or, perhaps, relief.
Things will shift. And, we will find a way to adjust. We will find a way to keep you present in this world and in our lives while moving on at the same time. We will continue to honor the contributions you made to our lives and to the world, and we will find a way to forgive the mistakes and oversights that were made along the way. We will hold on and release. Celebrate and mourn. Cling to each other a little more tightly or - perhaps - we will push away.
The world will never be quite the same.
