All life is sacred. Since life
is an affirmation of the
Creator, I shall live on, even when I am gone. In
trailing clouds of glory shall I return to my Creator
only to find that I had never really left. I shall walk
among the lilies of the field and leave my trail in
stardust in the sky.
-- John Harricharan
Compensation
God, I have known sorrow-
I have stood by helplessly,
as fate like a madly rushing, rising river,
Sullen and ruthless, swept from me everything worth
buying at life's mart;
Baby eyes, slowly clouding with death,
have pleaded for life,
As I stood by anxious and sorrowing,
but oh! how helpless.
Sorrow has squeezed my heart dry of all emotion,
Even the tears are gone from my eyes,
I smile-I smile, but God, I have known sorrow.
You have been kind, dear God,
for I have known love-
Not mere white, hot passion, but a love so possessing,
Consuming, that no sacrifice was too great to keep it;
A love that hid me from every hurt,
taking me in its strong, tender arms
Up to a land peopled with fairies,
and carpeted with pale hyacinths.
I willingly bear the the lonliness-the sorrow-
Since I have known love.
-- Ruby Berkeley Goodwin
No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.
-- C.S. Lewis
Tears have a wisdom all their own. They come when a
person has relaxed enough to let go and to work through
his sorrow. They are the natural bleeding of an
emotional wound, carrying the poison out of the system.
Here lies the road to recovery.
-- F. Alexander Magoun
The Bustle in a House
The Morning after Death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth-
The Sweeping up the Heart
And putting Love away
We shall not want to use again
Until Eternity.
-- Emily Dickinson
I still miss those I loved who are no longer with me
but I find I am grateful for having loved them.The
gratitude has finally conquered the loss.
-- Rita Mae Brown
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
-- Christina Rossetti
Grief can't be shared. Everyone carries it alone, his
own burden, his own way.
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The caterpillar dies so the
butterfly could be born.
And, yet, the caterpillar lives in the butterfly and
they are but one. So, when I die, it will be that I
have been transformed from the caterpillar of earth to
the butterfly of the universe.
-- John Harricharan
The Widower
For a season there must be
pain-
For a little, little space
I shall lose the sight of her face,
Take back the old life again
While she is at rest in her place.
For a season this pain must
endure,
For a little, little while
I shall sigh more often than smile
Till Time shall work me a cure,
And the pitiful days beguile.
For that season we must be
apart,
For a little length of years,
Till my life's last hour nears,
And, above the beat of my heart,
I hear Her voice in my ears.
But I shall not understand-
Being set on some later love,
Shall not know her for whom I strove,
Till she reach me forth her hand,
Saying, "Who but I have the right?"
And out of a troubled night
Shall draw me safe to the land.
-- Rudyard Kipling
Perhaps, they are not stars
in the sky, but rather
openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know
they are happy.
-- Eskimo legend
It is possible to provide security against other ills, but
as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city
without walls.
-- Epicurus
What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul.
-- Jewish Proverb
It's fantastic knowing you're
going to die; it really
makes having priorities and trying to follow them very
real to you.
-- Susan Sontag
Rest assured that in her dying,
in her flight through
darkness toward a new light, she held you in her arms
and carried your closeness with her. And when she
arrived at God, your image was imprinted on her
joy-filled soul.
-- Molly Fumia
Not only should we be unashamed
of grief, confident
that its expression will not permanently hurt us, but
we should also possess the wisdom to talk about our
loss and through that creative conversation with
friends and companions begin to reconstruct the broken
fragments of our lives . . . We should not resist the
sympathy and stimulation of social interaction. We
should learn not to grow impatient with the slow
healing process of time . . . We should anticipate
these stages in our emotional convalescence: unbearable
pain, poignant grief, empty days, resistance to
consolation, disinterestedness in life, gradually
giving way under the healing sunlight of love,
friendship, social challange, to the new weaving of a
pattern of action and the acceptance of the irrestible
challenge of life.
-- Rabbi Joshua L. Liebman
I'm Gone now, but I'm still very near.
Death can never separate us.
Each time you feel a gentle breeze,
It's my hand caressing your face.
Each time the wind blows,
It carries my voice whispering your name.
When the wind blows your hair ever so slightly,
Think of it as me pushing a few stray hairs back in place.
When you feel a few raindrops fall on your face,
It's me placing soft kisses.
At night look up in the sky and see the stars shining so brightly.
I'm one of those stars and I'm winking at you and smiling with
delight.
For never forget you're the apple of my eye.
-- Mary M. Green
I shall die, but that is all I shall do for Death, I am
not on his payroll.
-- Edna St. Vincent Millay
God comforts us in the pressures
we have to endure...
Remember that "comfort" does not mean relief from the
pressure. It is not a feather bed to lie on or a
cushion to absorb the blows. It means, literally, "with
strength." God gives to the person who trusts him
strength to bear the pressures. Remember, too, that it
is always given for the added purpose of equipping us
to help others who need comfort.
-- L. D. Johnson
Hope is a higher heart frequency, and as you begin to
re-connect with your heart, hope is waiting to show you
new possibilities and arrest the downward spiral of
grief and loneliness. Listening to the still small
voice in your heart will make hope into a reality.
-- Sara Paddison
