Just because they’re dead, it doesn’t mean they’re gone

August 5, 2021

deadGrief is just not logical. Not for those who believe that life goes on. 

I have a deep belief that life goes on after we leave this body. Dead means we just change form. We’re still there.

And yet, I grieve.

I grieve.

I know you grieve, too.

So when I find writing that addresses the issue of death and grief, I like to share. Here’s one that helps me  find a different perspective:

Walk Within You

If I be the first of us to die,
Let grief not blacken long your sky.
Be bold yet modest in your grieving.
There is a change but not a leaving.

For just as death is part of life,
The dead live on forever in the living.
And all the gathered riches of our journey,
The moments shared, the mysteries explored,
The steady layering of intimacy stored,

The things that made us laugh or weep or sing,
The joy of sunlit snow or first unfurling of the spring,

The wordless language of look and touch,
The knowing,
Each giving and each taking,
These are not flowers that fade,
Nor trees that fall and crumble,
Nor are they stone,

For even stone cannot the wind and rain withstand
And mighty mountain peaks in time reduce to sand.

What we were, we are.
What we had, we have.
A conjoined past imperishably present.

So when you walk the woods where once we walked together
And scan in vain the dappled bank beside you for my shadow,
Or pause where we always did upon the hill to gaze across the land,

And spotting something, reach by habit for my hand,
And finding none, feel sorrow start to steal upon you,

Be still.
Clear your eyes.
Breathe.

Listen for my footfall in your heart.
I am not gone but merely walk within you.

From The Smoke Jumper, by Nicholas Evans

I’ve retired the website for A Healing Spirit. Our tools to help process grief are now found exclusively on Etsy right here.

4 comments on “Just because they’re dead, it doesn’t mean they’re gone
  1. Diane says:

    Ohmyword, I LOVE this! Beautiful!

  2. This is so lovely. Thanks for sharing it.

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Welcome!

Here you’ll find my blog, some of my essays, published writing, and my solo performances. There’s also a link to my Etsy shop for healing and grief tools offered through A Healing Spirit.

 

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