For Ethan

The day we left for Honduras we received the devastating news that our beloved Ethan - friend and co-resident who recently graduated passed away suddenly. He was in Honduras last year on this same trip. We grieved together and remembered him as a group and we felt his presence so strongly through the week. This is a poem written in his honor. 

Ethan -

Here you were and here you are

We return to this place and see your foot prints

You have left not tracks but meandering streams, rivulets and waterfalls

Like those we pass in the green mountains, surrounded by wild ginger, coffee and plantains

Alive with movement, permeating, nourishing

And the darkness of tragedy becomes the rich, loamy compost from which new growth springs

This is something you understood better than most

How life and death walk hand in hand,

The beauty and closeness that emerges in the face of challenge

The opportunity that comes with pain

You are so present here and within us all

And we thank you

Kaitlin Best PGY3