Sweet CarolynMarie:

Tears of love and gratitude accompany my words for you tonight, my sweet and heroic friend! My heart is right there with you and I trust you can feel it beating along with yours.

Soon your pain and worries will ease and your tears will dry. There is a beautiful vista awaiting you, sweetheart. Remember, you are not alone. I know, I say it all the time, but it's so important that you believe it! Please realize how many people's lives and hearts you touch deeply, as you do mine. We remain with you just as you remain with us - always.

Dwell now on your precious moments with your remarkable family, savour each second with your husband and children. Your and their memories are the heart’s keepsakes that will never fade with time or change. Remember too that we are only separated in this life from the other by a thin veil of understanding.  Some people in this life become more deeply enlightened than others and you fall into that category as you are a luminary in the lives of so many people, CarolynMarie! Shine on. Smile on. I shall never forget the sound of your smile or the light of your courage that I feel privileged to have witnessed through your words.

You have walked your journey with cancer hand in hand, face to face, and always with integrity not commonly seen. You kept going and smiled and loved and shared your light in the world. Now your time for rest is upon you. You’ve earned it, sweetheart.

The long and winding road you have valiantly travelled while helping so many others to follow in your path is nearing a final crossroad. Your soul will feel renewed in the presence of peace and by the endless comfort of love. 

Thank you CarolynMarie for the blessings you brought and continue to bring to us here at Virtual Hospice.

I have made you a video message as my words cannot say what I feel tonight. The incomparable Annie Lennox sings “Into the West” and it’s something for you to listen to and watch (“down home” scenery included, tooJ).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZhU-uM-6bA&feature=youtu.be

Let the music soothe you to sleep as you prepare for your rapture, and know I am loving you now and always.

Thank you for the gift of your trust and your love. My love and gratitude go with you always!  Bliss awaits you, CarolynMarie. Fly free on wings of wishes, prayers and love.

With endless affection -hugs- -xo- for you and your family
Cath1

This time of year, the marsh grasses along the banks of Antigonish harbour are honey golden in hue.  Migratory birds on their way elsewhere alight here for a day or two and then move on.  Within the many inlets and along the small rivers that empty into the estuary, the herons stand regally present, and patient – still points in a turning world.

 Once, years and years ago, a great blue heron landed close to me, wings outstretched, and fixed me with the presence in its eyes.  There was a moment of intensity, a questioning of sorts,  then it was gone - awkwardly at first, but then with studied grace.  It seemed within that brief moment of our meeting that I fell into a world unknown to me except in dreams, a world beyond imagining, a world more real than the one I sit typing in today.  It is a world of deep, deep grace; a world of still composure; a world wherein “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well”   

 It is a lullaby best sung by friends beside a river, or at your bedside when words of love and grief and pain grow still like herons on the shore.

Jim