Because you loved freedom more than the world

You are once again a free soul, moving between lives —

From sins of the family, and curses for daughters

— To make forgiveness possible

Yesterday we were four children from the last millennium

Searching for the Big Dipper in the Southeast Asian sky

I wanted to be an artist, you said, and I a scientist

Tonight in the Bay Area I saw the Dipper again

And I knew that nothing is lost —

Your dream is safe with me; I am the part of you that survived

And I finally learned peace from the chaos we shared

“Then I saw a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and first earth had passed away.”

And then I saw New Eden.

Good night, my sister

Farewell and godspeed

(Sylvia Winters to Jing Xue 1991-2025)

The night my sister died, I stood in my backyard. In the distance, I heard the traffic on Highway 101, and the droning of planes heading toward San Francisco Airport. There wasn't a moon, but the sky was clear, and I could easily see the stars. I could see six stars out of the seven that made up the "Big Dipper". I breathed in the winter air of the Bay Area—of a place filled with enterprising spirit, optimism, joviality and confusion—and I knew that despite all the loneliness, despite all the grief I had, and despite the loss of what could have been—the joys and sorrows we shared in this life are eternal. I have found eternity in every moment of being.