Pablove In Chicago + In The Air

Livia, Milo, Cassiel and Desi in front of the giant wood doors of St Michael's Church

Cassiel and Desi lighting candles for their friend Pablo

Seven candles lit in memory of Pablo

Livia and Cassiel with their graffiti memorial to Pablo at Gino's East pizza in the Chicago Loop.

Two of Pablo's closest friends, Cassiel and Desi, were in Chicago with their families last week. While Pablo's Memorial and Funeral were happening two time zones away, The Blum and Reed families honored and remembered Pablo in the Windy City. They wanted to light memorial candles for Pablo. The church they ended up walking into was St Michael's, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Incredibly, St Michael's is the place where Pablo's Uncle Scott taught Sunday School many years ago. Of all the hundreds and hundreds of churches in Chicago, Pablo's friends made their way to the one with the most significance to his family. To put a finer point on the beauty of this: St Michael's is on a side street. Not an easy place to find.

Cassiel and Desi and their siblings Livia and Milo honored the loss of their friend Pablo with a simple and time honored ritual: lighting candles. These candles signify the fun they had with P. The off-the-scale screaming and laughing and heavy-breathed panting they had with P on countless days. The not stopping playing even after the eight parental command to slow down. The snapshot of childhood that they can always look back on, to remember Pablo, who, as they grow up, as their bodies change, as their physical appearance develops and their voices finally drop as low as Pablo's, will be forever young. The graffiti memorial they wrote on the wall at Gino's East was perfect.

The spiritual energy and cosmic power at hand right now is real. These things don't just happen.

P loved Chicago, the home of his cousin Isabella and Aunt Susan. The last time we were there was for Lollapalooza 2007. I pulled Pablo and Isabella through Millennium and Grant parks in a bike trailer. Our first stop that day was Intelligentsia Coffee. With fuel in our bodies, we went out for some fun. We saw Lance Armstrong riding through the park. We didn't know him then, but Pablo's papa nearly had a heart attack seeing his cycling idol while pulling a kiddie trailer.

Later that day, we went to the festival to see Silversun Pickups play. We stood in the wings of the stage, looking into the eyes of the audience looking at the band. I loved sharing that view with Pablo. After the show, we went into the band's tour bus. Many people have emailed us recently recounting that they met Pablo for the first (and some only) time in that bus. It's those seemingly little moments that make a huge mark, yknow?

I want to leave you with one more story. This one's about butterflies.

Sunday morning, I rode with my dear friend Greg Geisler. We rode up San Gabriel Canyon, east of Pasadena. This is a steep, stunningly beautiful mountain pass that's also known as Highway 39. As we turned our cranks over and over, I settled into my rhythm. The sun beat down on me, I thought of Pablo, I talked out loud to Pablo, I followed my breath and knew he was with me. The whole way up the mountain, all kinds of butterflies flitted around me, hitting my hands, my chest, my shoulders. Over half of them were Monarchs, the type of butterfly Paul Massa released en masse at Pablo's grave. At the time I felt the significance of these butterflies. They will forever remind us of Pablo.

When Greg and I regrouped at the bottom the mountain, I mentioned the butterflies.

'I didn't see any butterflies,' he said.

Across Los Angeles, Ben Berry from our Dangerbird family took a hike up Runyon Canyon. He sent us an email after his hike with these words: 'Walked Runyon this morning and had butterflies flying with me all the way around.'

The spiritual energy and cosmic power at hand right now is real. These things don't just happen.