MOVING TOWARD SPRING
MOVING TOWARD SPRING
We are no longer heading into winter, but moving toward spring and green things. New life, new beginnings, and perhaps a brighter day.
My words are few this writing, as the death of three friends as well as other challenges within this last month have left me a bit empty of inspiration. I would like to share with you a poem by John O’Donohue that I feel speaks for many that may have also lost friends and loved ones. I feel that the poem also speaks in a way of going into the winter of life and coming into the spring.
On the Death of the Beloved By John O’Donohue
Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts,
Where no storm or night or pain can reach you.
Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of color.
The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything
Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being;
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
With wonder of things.
Though your days here were brief,
Your spirit was live, awake, complete.
We look towards each other no longer
From the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
As close to us as we are to ourselves.
Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
We know our soul gaze is upon your face,
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.
Let us not look for you only in memory
Where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
Besides us when beauty brightens,
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.
When orchids brighten the earth,
Darkest winter has turned to spring;
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.
May you continue to inspire us:
To enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love
Until we see your beautiful face again
In that land where there is no more separation,
Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,
And where we will never lose you again.
