Where has this cold come from?/ “It comes from the death of your friend.” Will I always, from now on, be this cold?/ “No, it will diminish. But always it will be with you.” What is the reason for it?/ “Wasn’t your friendship always as beautiful as a flame?” Mary Oliver Dedicated to my father …
“There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.” –Neil Gaiman.
My parents have been dead a long time. Or not so long. It depends on my mood, how long it seems. My mom died in April 2007, my dad in January 1993. I often wonder what advice they would give me now, about being childless, being disabled and in chronic pain and often frustrated and depressed. Then, by chance, today I came across a quote that spells out what I know in my heart they would both say to me so perfectly, it gave me chills. In fact, I can hear my mom’s voice…
The summer after my mom died ten year ago, I discovered a cache of letters, poems, and old photos I had never seen before, many of which dated back to her high school and college years. It was disconcerting, to say the least, to discover that my mother–my mother!–had once been as immature and …
My dad died suddenly, face down in the snow, 24 years ago today. It’s somehow unsettling to realize I’ve lived half of my lifetime without him, when on that nightmare day 24 years ago, I couldn’t imagine my life without him in it. The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not “get …
Nine years. It’s been nine years since I last saw my mother’s heartstoppingly beautiful smile. I miss you mom, miss you so much my heart aches and I can’t catch my breath. You were right, of course, I turned out to be stronger than I ever thought I could be–after all, I never thought I …
Happy Easter Monday! One of my theology professors used to refer to Christians as “Easter People”. Which we are, of course, since the death and resurrection of Christ are the founding events of our faith. But what does it mean, really…what are the implications for our everyday lives? It means that we are never without …
The last of the Resch boys, the five sons of John and Bertha Resch, was laid to rest earlier this month. He wasn’t the last-born, but he was the last to die; an entire century passed between the birth of Leo, the eldest of the five, and the death of Albert. But for those of …
Until my father died suddenly, on a snowy, cold January day 23 years ago yesterday, I always assumed the word “heartache” was simply a metaphor. Now I know better. I don’t feel it every day anymore, thank goodness, but I still do, a lot more often than I’d like, as though a cold, clammy hand …
PRAY FOR PARIS yes, pray for Paris but remember before They attacked Paris They bombed Beirut They brought down a Russian airliner They killed one hundred in Egypt They have slaughtered thousands in Syria and Iraq and they are not done yet so pray not just for Paris pray for Our entire broken, bleeding, world …
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