Elizabeth’s collection of essays by this title was published by Sunbury Press in November 2024. It is a beautiful and powerful set of reflections upon suffering and grace. She worked with the press to design a small book that can easily fit into a pocket or purse. The book is also available […]
Grief
169 posts
Today’s your birthday. Just one day.Just one day. That’s all it is. Just one day. That’s all it took. Just one day. To take you from us. Just one day. And a lifetime is gone. In just one day. Today, 16 January 2025, is Mack’s 21st birthday. Or would be, if […]
Tying your dress shoes in a double knot,Like an eight-year-old. Running off the bus and flopping on the couch after school, Like an eight year old. Putting together your LEGO early in the morning (and late at night),Like an eight-year-old. Sledding down the hill at the back of your friend’s house,Like […]
I was humbled to be invited by Susan Hofer to offer the following sermon and reflection at Larry’s funeral on Saturday, June 15, 2024, at St. Peter’s Church. Lewes, DE. The readings were Isa. 61:1-6, Psalm 23, Rev. 21:2-7, and John 14:1-7. The obituary is below the sermon. Surely your […]
“I sat with my anger long enough until she told me her real name was grief.” This quote, with the accompanying picture, came up in my FB feed and was attributed, as you can see, to C.S. Lewis and, more specifically, to A Grief Observed. Except Lewis did not write […]
Reflecting on morning readings. “Blessed are the ears that catch the breath of the whisper of God, and give no heed to the whisperings of this world—blessed ears indeed, if they are listening to the Truth teaching them in their hearts and not to voices outside them.” Thomas a Kempis, […]
How long did Colin wear your shoesHow many miles walked, balls kicked, goals scoredIn your shoes?The soles came off before he gave them up. Who got your bike, new that Christmas?Did they ride it for days, up and down their streetOr hardly at allBecause it was always yours? She keeps […]
Many with whom I mourned the deadAre dead, and mourn no more. BlessédAre they that mourn, for thus they haveThe fullest magnitude of loveAnd learn of it, whereby the deadOutlive their lives, and live insteadEternally in present graceWhere death, ashamed, can find no place,For love goes with them, out of […]
This is an entry in the “Acrostic Contemplations.” See “Nunc Dimittis” “…He will swallow up death forever.” Isa. 25:8a We do not like to talk about death. Never have. Any of us. Which is not to say we don’t talk about death, we can’t avoid it. And there are some, […]
It is our nature to mark specific dates and times, not just the annual remembrance, but particularly those that seem somehow significant, whether numerically (5, 10, and so on) or personally, as when we passed the threshold when Mack had been gone from this world longer than he had been […]