by jphilo | May 15, 2015 | Family
This post that first appeared in May of 2008 speaks for itself. Uncle Ralph, you are dearly missed.
On Sunday, the swiftness of death and the uncertainty of life touched me twice. Mom called after lunch with the news of her brother’s death. His son had called Saturday and said Ralph was failing. “Within a week,” he said. We thought we had a few days.
But Ralph didn’t mess around. He died like he lived – fast and full-steam ahead. The swiftness of his passing surprised but didn’t shock us. After all, he was in his late eighties and had lived a good life. Once we received funeral details, we crowded a trip to Minnesota into the upcoming week’s plans and moved on.
In the evening, my husband and I helped at a graduation party for our friends’ daughter. During the festivities, word came that a tornado had destroyed a high school in Parkersburg, where the uncle and aunt of the graduate teach. Next we heard seven people had died in the storm. Then word spread that some of the deaths occurred at graduation parties. No one said the words, but we read them in one another’s eyes. It could have been here. It could have been us.
This morning I walked down our road. The grass glittered, washed clean by gentle rain in the night. The birds sang. The trees swayed gently in the breeze. The first iris bloomed in the ditch. The lilac branches drooped under the weight of blossoms at the height of beauty. Tomorrow, they’ll begin to fade. If the wind comes up, they’ll be gone.
I did the only thing I could in the face of the fading beauty of this life and the swiftness of death to come. Today, I smelled the lilacs.
by jphilo | Dec 28, 2012 | Daily Life
The view outside the upstairs window is a study of white snow on brown-grey tree limbs.
Sun gleams through the windowpane, but the glass feels like ice.
Winter crowds too close around our house.
Darkness falls too soon at night and leaves too late each morning.
Still, the ivy geranium is thriving.
It nearly succumbed to a vinca vine bully two short months ago,
And survived a late October transplant into an old washtub
To make a vigorous comeback.
Two weeks ago, as daylight grew scarce,
The ivy geranium produced first one bud and then another.
Mere inches from the icy windowpane,
The buds stretched toward the light.
First one bloomed and then the other during this week of Christmas,
Vibrant, pink reminders of the power of weakness:
The power of freedom from bullies,
The power of weak December light,
The power of a baby in a manger,
And the power of tiny seeds hidden under the snow, waiting for spring.
by jphilo | Jan 10, 2008 | Current Events
“Do you ever think about death?” A friend asked the question in an email this morning. He thinks his son, who has been ill for a very long time, may be dying.
Yes, I told my friend, I think about death every day. It started when I was a kid, and I looked at pictures of my dad in his younger days – showing cattle, playing football, goofing around with his friends. That young man didn’t look like my dad. My dad sat in a wheelchair, weakened by multiple sclerosis. He grew weaker for thirty-eight years before his body died, but even as a kid, I knew that little bits of him died every single day.
When my son was born, my husband and I confronted death often. It almost tore me apart until God showed me the depths of His love for our baby, and I learned to hope in His promises.
Sure, I think of death every day. But I think a lot more about life when I face choices about what I believe and what I do based on my beliefs. Will I concentrate on the little bits of me that die every day or will I focus on the new life I receive? Will I fear death or love life? Will I ignore evidence of God at work in or will I acknowledge and submit to it?
As I think about death and life, the truth becomes clear. I can’t stop death. But I can choose to live in a way that honors the gift of life, the life God gave my father, the life he’s given my son, and the life of my friend’s child.
Every day, I think about death. But I choose hope.
