shedding skins

I just listened to a talk by Jenny Odell where she talked about finding a snake skin while hiking Henry Coe park (around here). Shedding skins, something a snake does when it grows out of it. 

I've been keeping a few perishables in the kitchen as homage to my departed spouse, things connected to her in some way. Now it's 3 years hence her last breath. And these snake skins have to return to the earth as well.

check out the date:

she must have bought that when she was on some kind of dessert making jag.

And 

best by oct 30 , 2018, same month she passed.

Sat on the door of the fridge this whole time. A friend bought it for her when she was struggling with eating due to the chemo. I think I look at that and see the love with which it was purchased. And maybe a kind of unspoken declaration that she was worthy of such? 

It's a paradox no? As we start down the road of determining whether someone or something is worthy of being loved, isn't that the moment that love exits the room? But surely separating the wheat from the chaff can be an act of love, right?