Thoughts and Poems to Comfort

Lost Loved One
Death is Nothing At All
Child of Mine
We See But Dimly
Standing on the Seashore
Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep
Anthiphanes
His Chair Was Ready
Little Stars

Lost Loved One

Looking into the hour glass of time,
Remembering all you have done,
You were more then just a brother,
You were a friend,
You were there when needed,
There when a good laugh was required,
But yet you were my brother,
I hope that you knew,
I tried to do the same for you,
You touched so many lives,
Even though you didn't know,
You were my kids mentor,
Their teacher,
Their buddy,
But you were still my brother,
all the pain you felt no one knew,
All your frustrations,
All your sorrow,
Is gone for you now,
You are happy once again,
No more pain,
No more fear,
No more frustration,
You are walking again,
You will always remain in our hearts,
Always in our thoughts,
To our lost loved one,
We all love you.
By Lady Rider

Death is Nothing At All  
by Henry Scott Holland

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room,
I am I and you are you,
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used,
Put no difference in your tone,
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow,
Laugh as we always laughed,
At the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect,
Without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant,
It is the same that it ever was.
There is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind,
Because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval,
Somewhere very near,
Just around the corner, all is well.

Child of Mine

"I'll lend you for a little time a child of Mine," He said,
"For you to love while he lives and mourn for when he's dead."

"It may be six or seven years or twenty-two or three,
But will you, till I call him back, take care of him for Me?"

"He'll bring his charms to gladden you, and shall his stay be brief,
You'll have his lovely memories as solace for your grief."

"I cannot promise he will stay, since all from Earth return,
But there are lessons taught down there I want this child to learn."

"I've looked the wide world over in my search for teachers true.
And from the throngs that crowd life's lanes, I have selected you."

"Now will you give him all your love, not think the labor vain,
Nor hate Me when I come to call to take him back again?"

I fancied that I heard them say: "Dear Lord, thy will be done!"
For all the joy Thy child shall bring, the risk of grief we'll run.

We'll shelter him with tenderness, we'll love him while we may.
And for the happiness we've known, forever grateful stay.

But shall the angels call for him much sooner than we've planned,
We'll brave the bitter grief that comes and try to understand.

--Author unknown

We see but dimly through the mists and vapors;
  Amid these earthly damps
  What seem to us but sad, funeral tapers
  May be heaven's distant lamps.
--Longfellow (1819-1892)

"I am standing upon the seashore.  A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.  She is an object of beauty and strength.  I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then some one at my side says: 'There, she is gone!'

'Gone where?'

Gone from my sight.  That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.  And just at the moment when some one at my side says: 'There, she is gone!' there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: 'Here she comes!'

--Henry Van Dyke

 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's glint 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.

(author unknown)

"Be not grieved above the measure for thy deceased loved ones.  They are not dead, but have only finished the journey which it is necessary for every one of us to take.  We ourselves must go to that great place of reception in which they are all of them assembled and, in this general rendezvous of mankind, live together in another state of being."  --Anthiphanes

"We are spirits.  Our friend, as well as all of us, were invited abroad on a party of pleasure which is to last forever.  His chair was ready first and so he has gone before us.  We could not all conveniently start together and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow and know where to find him."  --Franklin (from The Twelfth Angel by Og Mandino)

Little Stars "...and when he shall die, take him and cut him into little stars, and he shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the earth will be in love with night..."  --Quote from Romeo and Juliet