In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried. We've almost reached the Promised Land, but before we do, we encounter death. Miriam, who was part of the liberation from Egypt, who was a prophet and leader in her own right, dies in the wilderness. Her death is recorded simply, without fanfare. She doesn't get a grand narrative about her passing. She's just gone. Sometimes I think about the people who don't make it to see the fulfillment of what they worked toward. My grandmother died a few months before my first book was published. She'd been my biggest cheerleader, the one who always said I was a writer. She didn't get to hold my published book in her hands. Life doesn't always give us the satisfaction of completion. We plant seeds and others harvest. We start journeys and others finish them. Miriam's journey ended short of the destination, but the nation she helped liberate would enter the land without her. Her work persisted even after she was gone.
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