09/01/2025
Today we remember Princess Diana on the anniversary of saying goodbye.
Diana was a loving and devoted mother to, and advocate for, so many who needed nurturing and care. 🤍
I once almost met Princess Diana. She was to visit the set of the follow up to A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures, and we were shooting at Pinewood deep into the forest there. When we finally took a break, I jumped in a golf cart and drove the mile back to the dressing room block to use the restroom. My driver started banging on the door, saying that she had arrived with her sons and I jumped into the golf cart and by the time I got back, she was walking away and I wasn't going to chase her to tell her how much I admired her. The next day I wrote a letter saying why I wasn't there and how much I admired her and had it delivered to Kensington Palace and the next day I received one back from her, thanking me for writing and understanding, of course, nature calling as it happens to her all the time and that she looked forward to meeting. She died two months later. I had just returned from England. I remember watching the news and then turning it off knowing what the news would do and the recurring shots of that tunnel. Next to my bed was a book on insight meditation by Jack Kornfeld and Joseph Goldstein. I picked it up and in the first pages it talked about how people who tried to live a mindful life, at the time of their death really asked themselves two questions.
Did I learn to live wisely? Did I love well?
I immediately thought about Princess Diana and her learning to live wisely. How she got out of that bu****it sham contract of a marriage and how she talked about her own personal issues and demonstrated courage and compassion, putting her hand on the leg of the young man with HIV/AIDS and walking in the minefield. I certainly thought that she had learned to live wisely. And I think we all remember the image of her with her arms outstretched after being away from her sons as they ran toward her. She loved them in a way a royal person never had and she really loved the world and so she did love well and even though that day, this day, I'm still moved by her and her grace and courage, I'm also comforted in knowing that she lived a mindful wise, loving life.
