A Blessing for Absence
May you know that absence is full
of tender presence and that
nothing is ever lost or forgotten.
May the absences in your life be full
of eternal echo.
May you sense around you the secret
Elsewhere which holds the presencesthat have left your life.
May you be generous in your embrace of loss.
May the sore of your grief turn into a well
of seamless presence.
May your compassion reach out to the ones
we never hear from and may you have
the courage to speak out for the excluded ones.
May you become the gracious and passionate subject of your own life.
May you not direspect your mystery
through brittle words or false belonging.
May you be embraced by God in whom
dawn and twighlight are one and may
your longing inhabit its deepest dreams
the Great Belonging.
An Eternal Memory Of
A LITTLE ANGEL
Today it would be wonderful
to see you play or smile
but heaven lent you to this world
for just a little while
And in that short but precious time
you brought along much love
and all that love is with you now
in heaven up above
Your leaving caused so many tears
and such a lot of pain
but God needed one more angel
so he took you back again
xxxxxxxxx
Too Soon - Mary Yarnall
This was a life that had hardly begun
No time to find your place in the Sun
No time to do all you could have done
But we loved you enough for a lifetime
No time to enjoy the world and it's wealth
No time to take life down off the shelf
No time to sing the songs of yourself
Though you had enough love for a lifetime
Those who live long endure sadness and tears
But you'll never suffer the sorrowing years
No betrayal, no anger, no hatred, no fears
Just love - Only love - In your lifetime.
"Look!" said one of the water bugs to another. "One of our colony is climbing up the lily stalk. Where do you think she is going?" Up, up, up it slowly went....Evenas they watched, the water bug disappeared from sight. Its friends waited and waited but it didn't return...
"That's funny!" said one water bug to another. "Wasn't she happy here?" asked a second... "Where do you suppose she went?" wondered a third.
No one had an answer. They were greatly puzzled. Finally one of the water bugs, a leader in the colony, gathered its friends together. "I have an idea". The next oneof us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell us where he or she went and why."
"We promise", they said solemnly.
One spring day, not long after, the very water bug who had suggested the plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, up, up, he went. Before he knew whatwas happening, he had broke through the surface of the water and fallen onto the broad, green lily pad above.
When he awoke, he looked about with surprise. He couldn't believe what he saw. A startling change had come to his old body. His movement revealed four silverwings and a long tail. Even as he struggled, he felt an impulse to move his wings...The warmth of the sun soon dried the moisture from the new body. He moved hiswings again and suddenly found himself up above the water. He had become a dragonfly!!
Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through the air. He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere. By and by the new dragonfly lighted happily on a lily pad torest. Then it was that he chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond. Why, he was right above his old friends, the water bugs! There they were scurryingaround, just as he had been doing some time before.
The dragonfly remembered the promise: "The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk will come back and tell where he or she went and why." Without thinking,the dragonfly darted down. Suddenly he hit the surface of the water and bounced away. Now that he was a dragonfly, he could no longer go into the water...
"I can't return!" he said in dismay. "At least, I tried. But I can't keep my promise. Even if I could go back, not one of the water bugs would know me in my newbody. I guess I'll just have to wait until they become dragonflies too. Then they'll understand what has happened to me, and where I went."And the dragonfly winged off happily into its wonderful new world of sun and air.......
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