This Is My Body

There was a dead seal on the beach this morning.

Two gray seagulls were pecking away at it when I ran by.

Piece by piece they took apart the seal's flesh, fed by the strange mixture of death and life that sustains us all.

As I ran past, I thought of Jesus. "This is my body, given for you."

And I thought of my mother, how her flesh gave me life and provided a place for me to lay my child's head. It was her joy to do that.

I want my life to be like that - food for others.