Death And Life On Memorial Day

Memorial Day Thoughts

For Those I Have Loved

All you I have loved, who are no more

My lovely ladies and gentlemen

I love you still as I did before

And I pray we may meet again

Though I can’t know how that may be

For where in another time, another place

Or even what name or number we may have.

But whatever I have for a heart will leap

For, O my lovelies, love runs deep

And I have loved you much.

James Dillet Freeman

Twenty-Third Psalm,

For a Dad

Lord, Shepherd my Dad today

In green pastures let him lay

To still waters guide his way

Restoreth his soul, I pray.

Lead him in the path of right

Through the valley give him light

When he’s afraid ease his fright

With Thy rod and staff lend might

Prepare a table of spoil

Annointest his head with oil

Give to him a cup that’s royal

Let goodness follow his toil

And Thy mercy cease never

May he dwell in Thy house forever.

This I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Uriah

When I come to the end of the road,

And the sun has set for me,

I want no rites in a gloom-filled room.

Why cry for a Soul set free?

Miss me a little —but not too long,

And not with your head bowed low.

Remember the love that was once shared.

Miss me, but let me go.

This is a journey we all will make

And each to take alone

It’s all a part of the Master’s Plan

A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick at heart

Go to the friends we know.

Bear your sorrow in good deeds.

Miss me, but let me go.

Author unknown

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints of snow

I am the sun on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you swaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the soft starlight at night,

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there. I did not die.

Mary Elizabeth Frye

Crossing The Bar

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me.

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea.,

Twilight and evening bell

And after that the dark,

And may there be no sadness of farewell

When I embark.

Tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place

The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I have crost the bar.

Tennyson

Prayer of St. Francis

For it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is darkness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be

consoled as to console;

to be loved, as to love

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

(Neil Armstrong left the following poem on the Moon, saying the words cover any emotion future visitors might have. Even death.)