I was cruising through Flickr and saw a familiar pic of Jad Duwaik on Dave Mcclure's page - which linked to his blog post dedicated to Jad. Jad was a wonderful writer and creative soul, whose pursuit of the fullness of life's adventures was an amazing testament to tenacity and fearless living. Last night I lit a candle and said a prayer for Jad and his family. Such a sudden departure from this world, it must have been time for him to move on to the next level.
I also unearthed a snippet of one of the last email's I received from him last year, when I'd asked him what his daily routine was like in China:
daily routine...write a bit, study Chinese a lot, study music a lot (learning drum, harmonica, and whisteling), and teach English 20hrs a week. All in all a good life, but I want more. I want to buy a house (prolly in China) and start a family, so I'm focusing my efforts on my writing. I recently found out that I can print my brad/jenn poem for $0.25/copy (in color). So I'm going to try and raise some capital and see what comes of that. (btw, i'd like to show investors there's a potential audience for my books, so if you don't mind, I'd appreciate if you could pass on the brad/jenn link if you liked it.)
The link he'd sent me to that latest writing project no longer works.
What I've learned of death in these past years - losing Papa from a heart attack, my boyfriend Barry Jacobs from a plane crash on the Burning Man playa airstrip, and my grandfather to emphysema, Alzheimer's and old age in 2003; then losing my grandmother to heart disease in 2004 -- can be interpreted in many comforting metaphors. But the metaphors we apply, the logic we attempt to console ourselves - that's for us, not for them. How to make sense of someone's passing, how to frame into our realities that someone who was there is now missing and will never return in physical form.
Love, compassion, healing, pain, growth, joy, sorrow - the meat of life, the lessons in personal alchemy, the triumph of time marching on and the challenge for each of us to live fully, today, to commit ourselves to the dreams which guide us, and the love that surrounds us.
Bless you all, our departed ones.
Hi Carmen, my name is Anissa and I am Jad's sister. I just want to say thank you for your words. I can't tell you what it means to me knowing that Jad touched so many people all over the globe. The loss is definitely profound, but I know that Jad would want us all to find a lesson in his death. I know he is finally at peace and truly happy- that gives me the comfort I need to move on (eventually :/ ) Thank you again!
Posted by: Anissa Duwaik | February 13, 2006 at 08:23 AM
Hi, I was a friend of Jad's from UCLA. When I heard about Jad's passing it was like having the wind sucked out of my sails. I saw the subject line "Jad" from a mutual friend and got excited that he might be coming into town. When I read that we'd lost him it was certainly sobering--none of us know when our time is up, nor how we'll go, but we can all be sure it will happen sometime. I send my thoughts to his family and friends, as well as my thanks for doing what you did to help make him Jad. His memory--that fantastic smile and his relaxed optimism--will be with me always.
Posted by: Thom Olson | August 30, 2007 at 10:01 PM