Death is that loss that we think of as ultimate. As I wrote yesterday, the family of Corey Jones is mourning their loss of his life in some as of yet to be explained conflict with a police officer. Yesterday, a teenager in a local school took her own life. That family is, no doubt, suffering the pain of their loss, not to mention the untold teenage friends, teachers and extended family.
I simply share with you this reflective poem by Henry Scott Holland. He pushes some of my tender spots, as perhaps he will for you. I take the last word of his poem “Christ” to mean the universal principal, as not all who die are Christians. Not all who suffer the loss of their loves are Christians. And, I am confident that the “Christ” receives them all into his heart. That’s why I am a Unitarian UNIVERSALIST.
So, read. Ponder. Take comfort in the letting go and sinking into the connection that remains beyond the loss.
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is past; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before only better, infinitely happier and forever we will all be one together with Christ.
Henry Scott Holland