Saturday, February 3, 2007

Leave~Taking by Sandra Bury

Dearest Kyler family.........there are no words. Thank you for sharing Timothy with us. Thank you for being a witness of deep faith. Thank you for allowing us to pray for you. Sending you a gentle embrace with the promise of our prayers in the weeks and months to come as you continue on this new part of the journey.

Love, Sylvia Pituch and family/Allentown PA


Leave~Taking
By Sandra Bury

When the coming of your death
Became an awareness on the planet
Some wondrous events began.
The word went out that you were preparing to leave,
To leave this place that you call home.

The word was heard by the wind
And it promised to blow
Under you and push you.

The clouds heard the wind and billowed for joy.
“You may land on us and float for a while.”

The rain said, “I’ll wash the air clean,”
While each star polished itself to a brilliant shine.

In the presence of your impending death
The earth prepared to send you forth.
The gravity that had held you so tightly
Began to lose its grip.
It called, “Let loose, Let loose,
Let loose and fly.”

As you began to float, a squirrel noticed and remembered;
Remembered how you saved,
Saved those things that were important.

He told the rabbit, who told the turtle, who told the bird.
“He’s coming,” they whispered.
The bird sang your memories a joyous release.
The song was heard by a lone wolf.

The lone wolf stood on a cold tundra
Howling her appreciation of all the lessons you learned so well.

Some distant great pines heard the howl
And knew of your leaving.
They swayed, releasing their fragrance to waft with you.

The fragrance was gathered in
By the swiftest of hawks, flown high
With the wisdom that the great hawk knows.

The hawk told a passing eagle who
Swooped and soared until,
Finding your spirit loose on the wind,
Carried it forward to a joyous rainbow.

The rainbow said, “Come, I’ve been waiting.
The colors are all for you!”

When the moon heard this, it shouted,
“Prepare! A life well lived is approaching!”

The stars again polished their shine
Until the illumination penetrated the system.

Your soul saw and knew it was going home,
Home to the light, home to the sun and home
Beyond home, beyond home.

And it met with all that it had always known:
The silent and brilliant mystery.
The source.

The entire mystery burst with the splendor of
“Welcome, welcome, we have been waiting.”
The source, with all the ancestors gathered round,
Enfolded you and danced your coming.

While far away, in the world you had known,
A group of your loves and friends
Gathered to speak your praises,
To sing your leaving and
To forever remember.

1 comment:

Becki Hawkins said...

Absolutely beautiful!! A friend of mine shared this with me. I was heading to speak to a choir group who sing to Hospice patients.
The words in Leave-Taking are exactly what we need to share with our loved ones or our Hospice patients....anyone actually.

I’m a retired Hospice nurse. I’ve written a book titled Transitions:A Nurse’s Education About Life and Death
My name is Becki Hawkins.