Lines of Comfort?

Subject: Lines of Comfort?
From: Fiolar
Date: 11 Aug 01 - 05:35 AM

I found the item below, some years ago and was so taken by it that I had it printed and framed. I have given copies to friends who have lost loved ones and they have found it a source of comfort. Mudcaters may be interested. If it is already in the database apologies. "Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well." Henry Scott Holland (1847 - 1918) Canon of St Paul's Cathedral.

Subject: RE: Lines of Comfort?
From: Mudlark
Date: 11 Aug 01 - 03:27 PM

Thanks, Fiolar, for these words. Having just lost a husband of 40 years they ARE very comforting. Now if I can just stop crying....

Subject: RE: Lines of Comfort?
From: R!
Date: 11 Aug 01 - 03:55 PM

Fiolar, that was lovely.

Mudlark, I am so sorry to hear that. Do you feel able to share some stories about your forty years together?

Subject: RE: Lines of Comfort?
From: Mudlark
Date: 11 Aug 01 - 11:12 PM

Thanks for asking, Rowana...the first 10 years we both worked in the computer software industry in LA, and spent every available weekend camping. Finally decided what the hell, and bought a 160 a. hill farm in Ark.,...the cheapest land we could find w/ fairly reasonable weather. Like a different planet, however, compared with Los Angeles...I learned to grow and can/preserve all our veg/fruit, butcher (ugh, never got used to it) all our own meat, live w/o indoor plumbing. It was like going back 50 years in a time machine, but an incredible revelation. Loved the people, and the oral tradition of the Ozarks, now largely lost to TV and inmigration...only wished I'd been able to tape record some of those wonderful stories. But played some great music there....musical friends were far flung, but when we managed to get togehter it was great. We made our living as potters...and when health problems drove us back to rural California, continued to do so.

It was a great 40 years together...life as a craftsmen not rich in money but in every other way an incredibly rewarding lifestyle. It's difficult, being alone now...had to kill my first rattlesnake a couple of weeks ago...my husband was crack shot so I was spared that chore...but sad as I am I know how lucky I was to have lived such a life. I think back, now, to what my life would have been like had I...we...continued to do the conventional thing, working for big bucks in the computer field...and know I am richer by far with the life I've lived in the country.

I was thrilled to find Mudcat, just a few months before John died...what a great resource and connection to the music I've loved since I was a kid with a Harmony guitar, searching out English folk songs long before Joan Baez came on the scene...and a great bunch of people....

Thanks again for asking....Nancy

Subject: RE: Lines of Comfort?
From: Fiolar
Date: 12 Aug 01 - 05:24 AM

Mudlark. Pleased that you liked the words. I know how you feel, believe me. I lost my wife to cancer 21 years ago and still miss her. I sometimes take out photographs and think of the fun times together. God Bless.

Subject: RE: Lines of Comfort?
From: R!
Date: 12 Aug 01 - 04:27 PM

Thank you for sharing that, Mudlark. It sounds as though your life, lived so close to the earth, has been a source of very satisfying memories that you can call up to comfort you now. Will you try to work them into a song or a poem, perhaps? Blessed Be.

Subject: RE: Lines of Comfort?
From: Mudlark
Date: 12 Aug 01 - 11:52 PM

Thanks again Fiolar...knowing that other people have suffered as much and gotten thru it somehow gives me much needed courage.

Rowana...I am that most common brand of writer...unpublished.! But have written many, many stories, short novels, etc about our life, plus some poems and a few songs. Wrote my last story just a few days ago after having to kill a rattlesnake in the yard. Anywhere else I'd have left it alone, but this was the second time the dogs had found this one within 15 ft. of the house so it had to go. John was an excellent shot and I've never fired a gun, never had to deal with this before. Finally managed with a dull hoe but not without massive adrenalin attack! I now keep a sharpened hoe and boots handy by the back door....

Here are the words to most recent song...I dont know how to do line breaks so it will probably be difficult to read!

Now is the time of the evening/When my heart is yearning to rest Now when the day is ending/And the sun seeks its home in the West.

I'm ready to stop all this yearning/For what I don't even know Like the leaves that are now slowly turning/Seems like it's time to let go.

Thank God every night has a morning/When the burdens that weary the heart, Like the sun, arise from the shadows/And become not the whole but a part.

Thank God for the real world of birdsong/Wild roses that perfume the air It's like food and drink to the wanderer/Gives heart's ease when there's too much to bear.

Thanks again, Rowana, for your thoughtful concern and interest.

Nancy

Subject: RE: Lines of Comfort?
From: Mudlark
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 12:06 AM

Now I've read what's been said about line breaks
Should have done so a long time ago
At using HTML I'm no great shakes
If this works at least now I'll know!