Tuesday, August 6, 2013

It's a beautiful day!  No one and no situation can take that away.  Open my eyes to the beauty.  Open my ears to the song of birds and the whoosh of leaves in the breeze.  Open my heart to the glory of creation. Thandiwe, my daughter, shared this magnificent photo with me this morning --Bastei, Elbe, Germany by Boris Buschardt .  It says it all.

Monday, August 5, 2013

A poem for reflection

I've been re-united with poems by Jeanne Lohmann, a family friend whose husband died when her children were young adults.  I'll be using this poem in a funeral for a 52-year-old father of three, in which the eldest son, aged 25, will share a tribute--part of the story. 

Sunday Poetry
by Jeanne Lohmann

Our stories lie down in the orchard,
their time is not now, but something is
coming, something is going away. They

rise to the stars, and wait to be told.
There are listeners who know how little
we know, how much we are feeling.

We had to go our own way, a little off course,
always, no matter how specific the directions
seemed at the time. In this universe if we’re lucky,

we will live in our children’s stories,
their tales that will turn us to legend,
some absurd truth that has nothing to do

with our plans, our meticulous records.
No matter what stories we discard or keep,
they will give us a life we cannot imagine.

From The Light of Invisible Bodies
by Jeanne Lohmann


Thanks to Jeanne for her numerous volumes of thoughtful and moving poetry. (and for posting some on the internet, so I could find them when I searched!)