Off to where it's eternally Spring

As the full moon glows large over the Pacific NW tonight awaiting the dawn of Spring (finally); a great sadness looms over our family. My wife's Mom is very ill and likely will not last the week to enjoy what Spring traditionally offers - hope, renewal, birds chasing worms, bees pollinating new flowers, youngsters of all creatures seemingly everywhere. She's going to miss all that.

I'll miss her gentle reserved manner, our long talks, and everything she's had to offer these last dozen years - what a gracious and classy lady. We know that death is inevitable, yet we wish it never comes - and certainly never expect it when it's suddenly thrust upon us. Walk fast forward Rushie, I'll miss you terribly.

Not being a religious man I nonetheless offer up the following for I know she believes and it seems so apropos:

Each Spring, God Renews His Promise.
Long, long ago in a land far away,
There came the dawn of the first Easter Day,
And each year we see that promise reborn
That God gave the world on that Easter morn...

For in each waking flower and each singing bird,
the promise of Easter is witnessed and heard,
And Spring is God's way of speaking to men
And renewing the promise of Easter again,
For death is a season that man must pass through

And, just like the flowers, God wakens him, too...
So why should we grieve when our loved ones die,
For we'll meet then again in a "cloudless sky" -
For Easter is more than a beautiful story,
It's the promise of life and eternal glory.
~Helen Steiner Rice