Remembering With Love: Messages of Hope for the First Year of Grieving and Beyond


When There Are No Words : Finding Your Way to Cope With Loss and Grief

Death is not extinguishing the light;
it is putting out the lamp 
because the dawn has come.

Rabindranath Tagore
Poet, Philosopher, Nobel Laureate
Quotes

“Death is nothing at all.  It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of 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 that 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 an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? 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 round the corner. All is well."

Henry Scott Holland 

“If we have been pleased with life, 
we should not be displeased with death, 
since it comes from the hand 
of the same master.”
 
Michelangelo
Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect
Books  Quotes

When I die if you need to weep
Cry for your brother or sister
Walking the street beside you
And when you need me put your arms around anyone
And give them what you need to give me.

I want to leave you something
Something better than words or sounds.

Look for me in the people I've known or loved
And if you cannot give me away
At least let me live in your eyes and not on your mind.

You can love me most by letting hands touch hands
By letting bodies touch bodies
And by letting go of children that need to be free.

Love doesn't die, people do
So when all that's left of me is love
Give me away.

Merritt Malloy
 

“Perhaps they are not the stars,
but rather openings in Heaven
where the love of our lost ones
pours through and shines down upon us
to let us know they are happy.”

Eskimo Legend

A rose once grew where all could see,
sheltered beside a garden wall.
And, as the days passed swiftly by,
it spread its branches, straight and tall.

One day, a beam of light shone through
a crevice that had opened wide.
The rose bent gently toward its warmth
then passed beyond to the other side.

Now, you who deeply feel its loss,
be comforted, the rose blooms there.
Its beauty even greater now,
nurtured by God's own loving care.

'The Rose Beyond The Wall'
Author Unknown

 

“I look at life as a gift of God. 
Now that he wants it back 
I have no right to complain.”

Joyce Cary
English Author
Books

We are all ships returning home
laden with life's experience,
memories of work, good times and sorrows,
each with his special cargo;
And it is our common lot
to show the marks of the voyage,
here a shattered prow, there a patched rigging,
and every hulk turned black
by the unceasing batter of the restless wave. 

May we be thankful for fair weather and smooth seas,
and in times of storm have the courage
and patience that mark every good mariner;
And, overall, may we have the cheering hope of joyful meetings,
as our ship at last drops anchor
in the still water of the eternal harbor. 

Max Ehrmann 
American Poet
Books

“When you were born,
you cried and the world rejoiced. 
Live your life so that when you die,
the world cries and you rejoice.”  

Cherokee Expression

"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home." 

Tecumseh 
Shawnee Indian Chief
Books

“God has been so good to me;
He has given me two hands
To pick His roses with -
And two eyes - to see his rainbow -
Why should I complain
When they are aged and wrinkled
And He asks me to return them,
For new ones perhaps?”

John Sims

 

Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.

Richard Bach
Other Quotes from Richard Bach
 

“Life is a great sunrise.
 I do not see why death 
should not be an even greater one.”

Vladimir Nobokov
Russian-American Author
Books

"I wanted a perfect ending...
 Now, I've learned the hard way that some poems
 don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear
 beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing,
 having to change, taking the moment and
 making the best of it,
 without knowing what's going to happen next.
 Delicious ambiguity."

Gilda Radner, 1946-1989
American Comedienne
Books

              
            “Whoever brought me here
                  will have to take me home.”

              Rumi