Funeral Blues
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He (She) is Dead
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policeman wear black cotton gloves.
He (She) was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week, my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song:
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out everyone;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
W. A. Auden
~
Ascension
And if I go,
While you’re still here…
Know that I live on,
Vibrating to a different measure
-behind a thin veil you cannot see through.
I wait for the time when we can soar together again,
-both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest.
And when you need me,
Just whisper my name in your heart,
…I will be there.
By Author Unknown.
~
“We are such staff Dreams are made on;
And our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
--The Tempest, Shakespeare
~
Love Sonnets - by Pablo Neruda
When I die, I want your hands on my eyes:
I want the light and wheat of your beloved hands
To pass their freshness over me once more:
I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny.
I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep.
I want your ears still to hear the wind,
I want you to sniff the sea’s aroma that we loved together,
To continue to walk on the sand we walk on.
I want what I love to continue to live,
And you whom I love and sang above everything else
To continue to flourish, full-flowered;
So that you can reach everything my love directs you to,
So that my shadow can travel along in your hair,
So that everything can learn the reason for my song.
~
Lake Song - by Colette Inez
Every day our name is changed,
say stones colliding into waves.
Go read our names on the shore,
say waves colliding into stones.
Birds over water call their names
to each other again and again
to say where they are.
Where have you been, my small bird?
I know our names will change one day
to stones in a field
of anemones and lavender.
Before you read the farthest wave,
before our shadow disappear
in a starry blue, call out your name
to say where we are.
~
Death is Nothing at All - by Canon Henry Scott-Holland
Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped away
into the next room.
I am I, and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name,
speak to me in the easy way
which you have always used to.
Put no difference in your tone,
wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was,
let it be spoken without effect,
without a trace of shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was;
there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval
somewhere very near,
just around the corner.
All is well.
~
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) from the book: Leaves of Grass.
A Clear Midnight
This is thy hour O’ Soul,
Thy flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging,
Silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best.
Night, sleep and the stars!
~
IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER - by Erma Bombeck
(written after she found out she was dying from cancer).
I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth
would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted
in storage.
I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was
stained,
or the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much
less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his
youth.
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day
because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more
while watching life.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't
show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.
Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every
moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only
chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now
go
get washed up for dinner." There would have been more "I love you's." More
"I'm sorry's."
But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute...look
at it and really see it . live it .and never give it back. Stop sweating
the small stuff.
Don't worry about who doesn't like you, who has more, or who's doing what.
Instead, let's cherish the relationships we have with those who do love
us.
Let's think about what God HAS blessed us with. And what we are doing each
day to promote ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally. I hope you all
have a blessed day.
Beautiful Women's Month
Age 3: She looks at herself and sees a Queen.
Age 8: She looks at herself and sees Cinderella.
Age 15: She looks at herself and sees an Ugly Sister (Mum I can't go to
school looking like this!)
Age 20: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too
tall, too straight/too curly"- but decides she's going out anyway.
Age 30: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too
tall, too straight/too curly" - but decides she doesn't have time to fix
it, so she's going out anyway.
Age 40: She looks at herself and sees "clean" and goes out anyway.
Age 50: She looks at herself and sees "I am" and goes wherever she wants
to
go.
Age 60: She looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who
can't even see themselves in the mirror anymore. Goes out and conquers the
world.
Age 70: She looks at herself & sees wisdom, laughter and ability, goes out
and enjoys life.
Age 80: Doesn't bother to look. Just puts on a purple hat and goes out to
have fun with the world.
~
Perfect Symmetry - by Barry Klassel
I sit on the bench by the cherry tree.
I wait for death.
I have sat here all my life
This spring morning.
I am so still the birds hop up to me or light on my arm.
And the breeze blows through me.
There is no hidden self, no secret self.
Inside me lies the planet that was my life,
The playgrounds and the battlegrounds,
The love bed and the deathbed.
It is I who painted the mountains with glory
And the sky with flame.
It is I who wears pink blossoms in my hair.
For a moment, I am flush with forgiveness.
Hush, I am trying to forget.
I will stand in a moment and leave this place
To its absolute loneliness and charm.
I will hobble through the gate and down the road built by strangers
In the perfect symmetry of a life willingly left behind.
~
A reading from Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Break, break, break
On thy cold Gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sounds of a voice that is still.
~
...In the midst of death we are in life.
In the words of Poet Nancy Wood
"You shall ask
What good are dead leaves
And I will tell you
They nourish the sore earth.
You shall ask
Why the leaves are so green and I will tell you
Because they are rich with life
You shall ask
Why must summer end
And I will tell you
So that the leaves can die."
~
Carl Sandburg
I love you for what you are, but
I love you yet more for what you are going to be.
I love you not so much for your realities
As for your ideals.
I pray for your desires that they may be great
Rather than for your satisfactions,
Which may be so hazardously little.
A satisfied flower is one
Whose petals are about to fall.
The most beautiful rose is one hardly more than a bud
Wherein the pangs and ecstasies of desire
Are working for larger and finer growth.
Not always shall you be what you are now.
You are going forward toward something great.
I am on the way with you and therefore –
I love you.
~
Finding You in Beauty - Walter Rinder
The rays of light filtered through
The sentinels of trees this morning.
I sat in the garden and contemplated.
The serenity and beauty
Of my feelings and surroundings
Completely captivated me.
I thought of you.
I discovered you tucked away
In the shadows of the trees.
Then, rediscovered you
In the smiles of the flowers
As the sun penetrated their petals
In the rhythm of the leaves
Falling in the garden
In the freedom of the birds
As they fly searching as you do.
I’m very happy to have found you,
Now you will never leave me
For I will always find you in the beauty of life.
~
If I Should Die - Author Unknown
If I should die tomorrow, which I might
Even with spring so new and the wind blowing
Flowers up from the earth and the great white
Clouds piled over the mountains; even knowing
That I should die and all the things we share
Be stricken from my careful grasp forever
Stars and gold sunlight warm upon the hair,
Your smile and the moon dancing in the river,
If I should die tomorrow, do not weep,
For I could never rest hearing your sorrow.
Deeper than love of life, my love is deep
For you. And if my life should end tomorrow
Bravely I’d close my days, however few,
Knowing I left the best of them with you.
~
Irish Blessing
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rains fall soft upon your fields.
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His Hand.
~
Elegy for Your Absence
(In English and then immediately following in Spanish)
“Peace, peace, he is not dead, he doth not sleep.
He hath awakened from the dream of life.”
Shelley
In that moment you sailed for all of death
Into profound oceans of silence
With long hours of sleeping pupils,
And a flock of doves caught in your dreams.
Now you are already in distant moonlight,
More yourself than in the arrows of your golden clock
Where you reckoned such a shoreless moment
For the thirst of wings that was burning on your shoulders.
You shall have vaulted seas stared at by inquietude,
Abysses in the timid solitude of your absence;
And in the night you shall have been delicate warm breeze
Close to that crumb of our amorous earth.
Long embrace of breath over the poppies
And a laugh and a song without words or music;
With a “Here I am,” glad of past wakefulness,
And a “forever” warm in the cool plain.
As you leave pressed in the arms of silence
The light of our words shall echo more clearly
And in each stanza of air an accent shall be entangled
And in each butterfly more wings shall be born to you.
Gladness of being alive for that eternal day,
Knowing yourself in the water, in the sun, and in the grass.
Among the clouds you shall make nativities of silver
And you shall discover your nest in a tree of stars.
Elegia Para Tu Ausencia
(Elegy for Your Absence translated in Spanish by H. R. Hays)
“Peace, peace, he is not dead, he doth not sleep.
He hath awakened from the dream of life.”
Shelley
Te fuiste aquel minuto para toda la muerte
a navegar en hondos oceanos de silencio
con un largo camino de pupilas dormidas
y un bando de palomas prendido a tus ensueños.
Ya estaras por ausentes claridades de luna,
mas tuyo que en las flechas de tu reloj de oro,
donde contabas tanto minuto sin orillas
para la sed de alas que quemaba tus hombros.
Y habras saltado mares que la inquietud miraba,
abismos en la timida soledad de tu ausencia;
y en la noche habras sido tenue brisa caliente
junto a aquel pedacito de tu amorosa tierra.
Largo abrazo de alientos sobre las amapolas
y una risa, y un canto sin palabras ni musica;
y un aquí estoy gozoso de pasados insomnios,
y un para siempre calido en la fria llanura.
Como partiste en brazos del silencio apretado,
resonara mas viva la luz de tus palabras;
y en cada estrofa de aire se enredara un acento,
y en cada mariposa te naceran mas alas.
Gozo de estar ya vivo para el eterno dia,
de saberte en el agua, y en el sol, y en la hierba.
Haras entre las nubes Nacimientos de plata
y encontraras tu nido en un arbol de estrellas.
Your life is a Sacred Journey - Caroline Adams
It's about change, growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous risks, embracing challenges at every step along the way.
You are on the path exactly where you are meant to be right now …and from here, you can only go forward, shaping your life story into a magnificent tale of triumph, of healing, of courage, beauty, wisdom, power, dignity and love.
Reading from "The Prophet" by poet Kahlil Gibran
Then Almitra spoke, saying, We would ask now of Death.
And he said:
You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.
