Post by Clipper on Oct 18, 2008 9:48:21 GMT -5
Well concerned, thank you for the support and good thoughts. I am buoyed up by faith that the God is on his throne and all will be well.
I once read and retained a little booklet published by a hospice nurse, I dug it out of my bookcase and brought it to my brother and sister yesterday. It is copyrighted and not to be copied, but I will quote a piece of prose by a man named Henry Van Dyke.
It is called "Gone from my sight."
Quote: I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says "There she is gone!"
"Gone where?"
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear the load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says "there she is gone!" There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout "Here she comes".
And that is dying.
Unquote
My sadness and feelings of loss are balanced with the idea that it is my mom and my Dad's parents that await on the other shore with arms outstretched. He will complete his journey and be with those that have gone before us. He will be with my mother and without pain, just awaiting the time when the rest of our family comes sailing home to that distant and sunny shore.
I truly believe that the God that carried me through Viet Nam without harm, saved me from alcoholism, and saved my son from cancer many years ago, is all powerful and in charge. I truly believe that a God that can perform such miracles, also has provided a place where we go when we leave this life. In my mind, death is simply the end of this life, and the beginning of another. Hopefully without the strife and health issues that we all have faced in this life, haha.
If I am wrong, we will, as I have said before, simply become compost, and a memory in the minds of those we leave behind. But I really don't subscribe to that finality.
Thank you again for the wonderful support and all the prayers and good thoughts that carry me through my days. God bless you all.
I once read and retained a little booklet published by a hospice nurse, I dug it out of my bookcase and brought it to my brother and sister yesterday. It is copyrighted and not to be copied, but I will quote a piece of prose by a man named Henry Van Dyke.
It is called "Gone from my sight."
Quote: I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says "There she is gone!"
"Gone where?"
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear the load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says "there she is gone!" There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout "Here she comes".
And that is dying.
Unquote
My sadness and feelings of loss are balanced with the idea that it is my mom and my Dad's parents that await on the other shore with arms outstretched. He will complete his journey and be with those that have gone before us. He will be with my mother and without pain, just awaiting the time when the rest of our family comes sailing home to that distant and sunny shore.
I truly believe that the God that carried me through Viet Nam without harm, saved me from alcoholism, and saved my son from cancer many years ago, is all powerful and in charge. I truly believe that a God that can perform such miracles, also has provided a place where we go when we leave this life. In my mind, death is simply the end of this life, and the beginning of another. Hopefully without the strife and health issues that we all have faced in this life, haha.
If I am wrong, we will, as I have said before, simply become compost, and a memory in the minds of those we leave behind. But I really don't subscribe to that finality.
Thank you again for the wonderful support and all the prayers and good thoughts that carry me through my days. God bless you all.