"People Get Ready,

-
there's a train a-coming. don't need no ticket, you just get on board."


Went to a funeral today, my hubby's co-worker, dead at age 54. What once sounded old to me has changed over the years I realized as I stood with our friends in the early afternoon light on this beautiful golden October day and watched the casket being placed into the hearst.
Because we are nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and we daily watch the current of morbidity, mortality pass by us it's easy to believe that we are safe on dry land protected from those chilling waters. But life is what it is. No more, no less.

Few words of comfort for the group gathered here today. Michael had collapsed at work and the resuscitation attempts were done by those who knew and loved him well. "All the King's horses and all the King's men..." During the service I had the uncomfortable feeling of being at the losing end in a game of Tug of War and the priest knew he was dragging us all through this towards him yet unable to answer our unspoken question, "Why?"

"Life is eternal and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon, and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight."—Rossiter W. Raymond.


Please note: photo by Jacken Hack

Comments

  1. LydiaOctober 30, 2008 at 2:27 PM

    A lovely and loving post.

    Now I must find the song on You Tube because I love it and NEED to hear it after your tantalizing reminder of it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 30, 2008 at 4:57 PM

    The casket___
    it contained
    nothing of value,
    the spirit has departed,
    the memories linger
    and power the hearts
    left behind.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RudeeOctober 30, 2008 at 8:49 PM

    What a nice post. It's always difficult to think about our own mortality. I believe life is a journey and death is a part of it. I don't know what's at this journey's end, but I'm not really afraid to face it. Nor am I anxious to get there. Time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 31, 2008 at 5:13 PM

    Lovely. Dealth is not the end, I believe that with all my heart.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousNovember 3, 2008 at 6:14 PM

    I don't know what I believe about death, except I'd rather collapse in my prime than die the slow agonizing deaths I've witnessed in my life time.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Hey, thanks for your thoughts and your time:>)

Popular posts from this blog

10 Things I Love That Start With the Letter E

-
Image
Game imported from Sweet Annie at Blissful Bohemian . Name ten things you love that begin with a specific letter. In my case, the letter E. So here goes: 1. Well, first of all there's elephants . Who doesn't love those cute little faces?? And what's not to love? Elephants are actually a lot like humans. They laugh and cry. They grieve over their dead. They play games with each other and have fantastic memories so they can even remember the rules and not go to bed mad. 2. Then there's Engelbert Humperdinck, who I don't actually love and his singing's just on this side of okay, but I do love his name. 3. I luuuuuuv eggs , deviled. Nothing fancy, just classic. Best Basic Deviled Eggs 6 eggs, hard cooked and peeled 1/4 cup mayonnaise 1 teaspoon yellow mustard 3/4 teaspoon white wine vinegar pinch of salt (optional) fresh ground black pepper (optional) smoked paprika (optional) Cut eggs in half. Arrange egg whites cut side up on a serving plate and put the yolks ...
Read more

The Poet Goes to Indiana by Mary Oliver

-
Image
I'll tell you a half-dozen things that happened to me in Indiana when I went that far west to teach. You tell me if it was worth it. I lived in the country with my dog— part of the bargain of coming. And there was a pond with fish from, I think, China. I felt them sometimes against my feet. Also, they crept out of the pond, along its edges, to eat the grass. I'm not lying. And I saw coyotes, two of them, at dawn, running over the seemingly unenclosed fields. And once a deer, but a buck, thick-necked, leaped into the road just-oh, I mean just, in front of my car— and we both made it home safe. And once the blacksmith came to care for the four horses, or the three horses that belonged to the owner of the house, and I bargained with him, if I could catch the fourth, he, too, would have hooves trimmed for the Indiana winter, and apples did it, and a rope over the neck did it, so I won something wonderful; and there was, one morning, an owl flying, oh pale angel, into the hay loft o...
Read more

A Year with EB White

-
Image
"You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that."----- from Charlotte's Web I am a soul always drawn and fascinated by the idea of " A Year of...". A Year of Rumi. A Year of Calvin and Hobbes. A year cooking with Julia Child. A project that provides guidance for the year and a ruler we can measure inward growth in the course of our circle around the sun. One year, after an early marriage and an unsurprising--except to me--early divorce, I came across a book by Sue Hubbell titled A Country Year. I didn't plan for it to take a year to read, but it did. I only read it at night before I went t...
Read more