Coming up is the holiday Hallmark invented to celebrate love. Today I am positing that we need, on each and every day, to celebrate love. To spread it around in massive doses. To remind those dear to us how deeply we love them. To let go of petty grievances and forgive easily and often. To touch each other, physically in huge hugs, and emotionally in deep ways. To nourish and treasure our relationships.
This week has brought much loss to me personally and to our caring community. Someone who battled cancer like a true warrior and who finally lay down his sword and passed peacefully with family and friends surrounding him. And another precious someone who was young, vibrant and beautiful and who has moved to the spirit world way way too soon. Their faces are before me as I type this and if my grief is this raw, it boggles my mind and heart how their loved ones must be feeling.
I have nary a notion about what happens to our souls when they are no longer in our earthly bodies. Sometimes I wish I did. Perhaps it would make grasping the great unknown of the ‘afterlife’ more reachable. I do know one thing though . . .that the love we have shared with those we lose does live on in our hearts. Of this I am certain. It is all we have to accompany the memories we hold so dearly.
For this reason, the song “How We Love” by Beth Nielson Chapman has always moved me. And today, thinking about love and loss, I hear the refrain over and over again in my mind as I ponder the great questions.
Every day is new
And if anything is true
All that matters
When we’re through
Is how we love
Some things fall apart
But from the ashes new dreams start
All that matters to the heart
Is how we loveHow we love
How we love
From the smallest act of kindness
In a word, a smile, a touch
In spite of our mistakes
Chances come again
If we lose or if we win
All that matter in the end
Is how we love
How we love
How we love
I will not forget your kindness
When I needed it so much
Sometimes we forget
Trying to be so strong
In this world of right and wrong
All that matters when we’ve gone
All that mattered all along
All we have that carries on
Is how we love
Thank you. Beautiful. Sweet Margo girl💙
Just plain beautiful! Thank you.
I just came across you blog today and your website about your beautiful farm.
Your writing is very touching and beautiful.
What you do is very inspiring in turn with your farm, family, and food.
Very sorry for your loss
Our family lost a young man this February to cancer(brain) also, he was a special guy and he was my son. A loss like that is very harmful but also enlighting to say the least.
We are trying our best to recover and be well with what has happened.
I hope to visit your beautiful island some day and hopefully visit your farm too.
Thank-you for your words. I will be back to visit you site often.
Oh my goodness, Dayle. Thank you so much for your very kind words. And please know I cannot fathom your loss and send you worlds of love from afar.
Hopefully our paths will cross some day.
In warm aloha, Lee