Please forgive me if others have alluded to these LINES in previous postings. I was a late starter on this prolonged metaphorical , nautical journey...but I hope this provides some comfort or food for thought.


                  THE SAILING SHIP

What is death ?
I am standing on the sea shore ,
A ship sails in the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her .
Til at last she fades on the horizon and someone at my side says :
"She is gone ."

Gone ! Where ?
Gone from my sight - that is all .
She is just as large in the masts , hull and spars as she was when I saw her
And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me , not in her .


And just at the moment when someone at my side says ,
"She is gone "
There are others who are watching her coming and other voices take up a glad shout :
" There she comes "
- and that is dying . An horizon and just the limit of our sight .
Lift us up , Oh Lord , that we may see further .

BISHOP CHARLAES HENRY BRENT ( 1862 - 1926 )

David