Greetings ,

I gathered up a site that I'd posted on the Net last year,  and am putting it here in this journal for safekeeping: 

tuesdays with Morrie, Oprah Winfrey, Andy and me

So this is not really an entry, per se, but as you will see, this link is packed with content.

My father's dying and death was a powerfully transformative experience for me, and I emerged from the crucible of his passing a different person with clarified priorities and a stronger sense of purpose.

Three years later, I see how I am my father's daughter.  He lived passionately and heartily embraced life.  

"It is as natural to die as it is to be born;
 and to a little infant,
perhaps, the one is as painful as the other."
~ Francis Bacon

"Death is psychologically as important as birth...Shrinking away from it is something unhealthy and abnormal which robs the second half of life of its purpose."
~ Carl Gustav Jung
quoted in Time, obituary, June 16, 1961

"The wise man looks at death with honesty, dignity and calm, recognizing that the tragedy it brings is inherent in the great gift of life."
~ Corliss Lamont
Journal of Philosophy, January, 1965

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep!
He hath awaken from the dream of life!
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Be of good cheer and say
that you are burying my body only.
~ Socrates, to his followers at his execution

Come lovely and soothing death,
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,
In the day, in the night, to all, to each,
Sooner or later, delicate death.
~ Walt Whitman
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"

Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you;
When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned,
And the flame shall not consume you.
You are precious in my eyes, and honored.
And I love you.
~  Isaiah 43:1-2

We must travel across lonely and rugged terrain, through isolation and silence, to reach the magic zone where we can dance an awkward dance and sing a melancholy song.
~Pablo Neruda

"Life is a Gift."

Sincerely,
Author Unknown

P.S.  If you would like to share a portion of yourself  with words, in response to this journal entry, you may do it here.  

"The only gift is a portion of thyself..." Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

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