For my grandmother and for my mother in law I wrote and played my song "Spreading Rings". The funeral director at my mother in law's funeral asked for a copy for other non denominational and agnostic/atheist funerals, which I took as high praise.

SPREADING RINGS
Anne Lister


Eternity is made up of little things
Not a bigger splash but thousands of spreading rings
Through the eyes of all of us who care
You'll still look out, you'll still be smiling there
Time after time.

I can't believe in curtains after all
Can't believe in endings
Can't believe that night could ever fall
On all your warmth ascending
I do believe you've left behind
Some hopeful part of a peaceful mind
That glows and sends a candle shine
Into tomorrow...

Everything you've ever done lives on
Casts a living shadow
And every note and word of every song
Leaves a lasting echo
And everything you've done in hope
And everyone you've helped with love
Will light a candle up above
And go on shining...

Maybe we can never be reborn
Maybe time's a river
Flowing on through fields of growing corn
Changing shape forever
But somewhere there's a shape you made
And somewhere there's a debt you paid
And left a mark which will not fade
But goes on shining ...

And if there is a future for the soul
If there is some meaning
We can make the part into the whole
And call an end to dreaming
And everyone who's suffered pain
And everyone who's loved in vain
Will see the world turn round again
And walk forward smiling.

Anne