Day 3 - 74 -- Comforting Words from Friends

We placed Mom's ashes with Dad's today. They are across from my uncle and my cousin's father-in-law, in a lovely smallish room. The minister spoke of her love of travel and noted she was off on her last great adventure. He told a story of watching a ship depart and disappear beyond the horizon noting that while one watched the ship leave, elsewhere someone was watching it arrive -- all very soothing thoughts.

When I knew this day would arrive, I began thinking of how one would ever write about such a day. While I didn't really have any notes for my words, I did know which words from others I'd want to share. Both are from wonderful singer-songwriter/musicians.The first words that came to mind were words I've been reading regularly in the past several weeks. They were written by a dear friend of mine, Paul Barton, who was kind enough to allow me to share these here with you.

 Some things we don't want to happen -- we have to accept.

Some things we don't want to know -- we have to learn.

Some people we just can't live without -- we have to let go.

These words have always held meaning for me, and with recent events have provided moments of calm in the craziness of life.  Events that we never expected to occur happened and we moved through learning many things we did not want to know. I'm hoping that we can move on to letting things go. I've been feeling sad for myself at times, which seems to be a large part of grief. The pain of knowing what loved ones go through at end of life is much of the remainder of the grieving. As I've been cleaning, sorting and packing up a life, I've reached the point where I don't want to know what is in that unopened box even though I expect I will feel anxious if I don't at least look at the major items stored therein -- even briefly. <smile> Perhaps that is part of the 'letting go'

The song that fit so well to share here speaks about moving to the new normal and finding a way to let go. The singer/songwriter, an online friend who agreed to my sharing his performance here, wrote this after the death of his mother, which made it even more poignant in the past little while. They do focus on those 'eternal contradictions.' Thank you James for the comfort this song has offered.

Let the Tree Fall -- James Lee Stanley

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