Thoughts....

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 still are.
Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used,
Put no difference in your tone,
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we shared together.
Let my name ever be the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of a 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.

-Henry Scott Holland, Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

A friend passed on Wednesday morning after an all too brief illness. He will be very much missed by so many friends and family. Probably more than he realized.

Tonight I will sit with the family. Tomorrow I will attend a day of prayer services, and graveside services and then sit with the family again. Sad as the event is, most of the day, I think, will be spent in laughter, smiles and general joy. All edged with a thin thread of sorrow. This week has been spent in an odd sort of limbo as we all mourned in our own way. Tomorrow puts an end to much of that.