" Life and Death"

A sweet friend who I love dearly
Not halfway through her beauty
Starts to fear for her passing
Starts to fear her dying hour
Will she waste the beauty
Of her loveliness and spirit
By fearing the one thing
That we know will come to pass?

We are all upon a journey
An exciting vivid pathway
Not just from birth to death
But from alpha to omega.
From amoeba to future man
From Africa to America
If we can trace our DNA
To the dawn of time in Africa
Surely by all that's Holy
It must stretch as far the other way!

All of us who have loved someone
Must have felt that consciousness
That expanding of awareness
Beyond the function of the brain!
That knowing beyond thinking
That's the senses of the spirit
That's the knowing that can go with us
When we leave this life behind!

I am quite content to know
The limit of my understanding
Cannot hope to encompass
Everything that will be so.
Whether playing harps in Heaven
Or going walkies with a Dog God
Or worshipping a Goddess
Oh Goddess let it be so!
Or imagine just an energy
With that loving consciousness
Merging with all others that have ever been.
Imagine all the sparking, the laughing and the larking
When this life is over I'll be content to go there.

I'm in no hurry to move onward
But I know it's surely coming
There's one or two would kick my ass
If I went too soon!
When my time comes I hope
I'm not a miser at my ending
Clinging greedily to days and nights
Whose worth is sadly declining.
But ready to hopefully
Face the onward journey
With all the love I've saved up
In my ever-loving' life!

Someone said 'twas better
To always travel hopefully
Than to arrive.
I think that's a better way
To try to live your life.
Live up to life's promise
Live all your life hopefully
No matter what the setbacks
Love as many dearly
As you'd wish to love yourself
This can be a life of beauty
And your only duty
Is to do your very best
For the best part of your life.

There's no need to live fearfully
Because of what is coming
That is just to waste the thing
That life has given us.
Death is just the next step
In the journey we must travel
To regret any part of it
Is to regret life itself.

So give yourself to living
Give yourself to loving
Give yourself to travelling
This lovely vivid road
Give to travelling hopefully
Till age make travelling wearyfull
Then allow kindly death relieve you of your load.

Copyright © Res JFB 18th May 2008

This is dedicated to my dear friend Dena with Love and Admiration.