Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree...

Bearing witness...



Yesterday i attended a funeral of the father of a close friend of my eldest daughters... i know the family and in a way it was a reality check for me (as all things are i believe a reflection of self) and i was reminded again of my own mortality... the now departed being close to my age and taken suddenly and unexpectedly from his family...

i walked with umbrella through the rain and sat quietly in a church pew as the local community gathered solemnly to say their goodbyes and i felt blessed to be counted among the many... and as i prayed quietly for his Spirit, i watched his wife and children while hot tears slipped down my cheeks in admiration of their stoic self composure... But then amid ceremonial frankincense smoking i was gently reminded that another Spirit had been freed from the confines of the flesh ...and for a tiny moment a small part of me felt envious as i listened to the words of a song sung in his memory about 'the hours' that we are gifted to live ~here~

Later when i had time for a quiet moment with his wife to share a few words i realised with great clarity that this was indeed a blessed time and a time of not unwelcome change for which in a strange but sacred way her husband had already prepared her for... "There are more things in heaven and earth..." i though to myself about the magic that IS

When it came the time to put his earthly body to rest, a plot had been chosen, in a favorite place of mine, in a cemetery amongst the trees not too far from my home where one is still allowed the luxury of individual adornment and decoration ...And i thought to myself that i should bring his daughter and mine back here someday soon, when the sun returned to lay a blanket and picnic quietly so that his daughter can whisper the secrets to him that time did not allow them this time around...

And as it Always is, when one looks for such things, there was a beautiful gift from the Heavens, for as the casket was silently carried from car to grave~site through an honor~guard of uniformed CFA firefighters, silently high up on a bare sun bleached gum tree branch were three Kookaburra's bearing witness in Mother Natures own blessed honor~guard... and as his body was slowly lowered by caring hands unto the earth did a small bird fly closely over his casket to sit in an overhanging tree bough and chatter joyfully to the worlde...

And as i watched my eldest daughter in a circle of her friends, around their dear bereaving friend, i realised that it was my time too of letting go, for my heart whispered to me that these children were children no more... and i understood as are all moments of ~Grace~ that this was a Right of Passage

Thankyou dear ~Stephen~

Blessed You Be

Amen

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."

Quote from The Tempest: Shakespeare:
Act 4, scene 1, 148–158