Saturday, September 13, 2014

Letting go



Today we let Maggie go. We took her ashes and spread them in a place she loved and she can be part of the wind and the flowers and the whole world. I know there are many different ways to handle these things, and I also know this was the right way for Maggie.

It was a hard thing to think about doing, and I've done nothing but think about it all week. I found a couple of poems to read and cried all the way through as I read both aloud. Strangely enough, once we actually started taking turns spreading her remains around, it wasn't difficult at all.

Maggie is free. She has been free since February and today was only symbolic of that; but it was a very meaningful symbol for all of us. We know she's out there. She is everywhere.

 And that makes me feel just a tiny bit better.



Do Not Stand at my Grave and Weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight. 
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there. I did not die. 

Mary Elizabeth Frye 
1932




9 comments:

  1. It is so hard to give someone up. It is more important to concentrate on how lucky you were to have them in your life.

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  2. I could not agree more. In fact the second poem I read spoke to that

    She is Gone



    You can shed tears that she is gone
    or you can smile because she has lived.

    You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back
    or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left.

    Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her
    or you can be full of the love you shared.

    You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
    or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

    You can remember her and only that she’s gone
    or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

    You can cry and close your mind,
    be empty and turn your back
    or you can do what she’d want:
    smile, open your eyes, love and go on.




    David Harkins, © 1981
    Silloth, Cumbria, UK

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  3. I've read this several times and cried a bit each time. And I didn't know what to write that could possibly do justice to the feelings of sorrow, of gratitude, of love that I have when I read this, when I remember Maggie, when I continue to become friends with you. Maggie's memory brings tears through happiness or happiness through tears --

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  4. That is just about the most beautiful and fitting poem I have ever read.

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  5. I think there is something so fitting in your choices, you shared Maggie so freely with the rest of the world. In your community and I know with me here through FB and LJ. You've released the last of her physical body to mingle with the rest of the world, the world that she loved and the world that loved her too. Thank you, and Thank Maggie! <3 <3 <3

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Hi Maggie loves your comments. It may take a while for the comment to post, but you will see it eventually.