season of change

My father died last week.

When one of your parents dies, the world seems to shift underneath you suddenly, lurching into a new dimension. Suddenly, everything & everyone around you seems different… your remaining parent, your siblings, your significant other, the way your eyes see the world in front of you. Decades of your life seem to fast forward in your mind, at dizzying speed, leaving you astounded, trying to catch your breath.

On this day of Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, I am thankful because my father is now free of mental & physical anguish, that I am able to spend time with my mother to help her with this transition, that Dennis understands completely the importance of my being here, that most of my siblings understand how crucial our support to her is now & will be in the coming months, for the way my parents raised me as the oldest child because it is what has made me who I am today, for the countless times during my 49 years that my mother has said “You’re just like your father”, & for all the memories I can keep forever. Fly away on your journey, Dad. Your wings are no longer broken.

Comments

[Pam]

So sorry for your loss Lyn.
Pam in Australia.

[D]

I love you.

[Sue Schwarz]

My Dad died in 2001. He had been my rock for 60 years and I had no idea how to go on without him, but here I am eight years later and know that he never left me, he lives in my heart and I know he is looking out for me, and I am sure yours is looking out for you too. Peace for you and your family, Lyn.

[Ginny]

I am very sorry for your loss. I hope your art and family help sustain you.
Ginny

[Rebecca Mezoff]

This is a beautiful post Lyn.
Thinking of you.
Rebecca

[tommye scanlin]

Lyn,
My wishes for peace are with you and your family. I want to share a poem with you but will do so by private e-mail.
Tommye

[Michelle Mancini]

Lyn,

I am so sorry for your loss. May you find comfort and peace in knowing that your father will live forever in your heart.

Michelle

[Lyn]

Kindness is such a healing & wonderful gift. Thank you, all of my weaving friends, for yours.

[Jennifer]

I am sorry for your loss, Lyn. I am sure you are full of so many different emotions and have such a large task ahead of you. When you can catch your breath, give yourself time to grieve all that was, that was hoped for, and could have been. Give yourself the gift of moving through it.

[Debbie Herd]

Lyn, I am so sorry for your loss...Fathers are special people in our lives. I am sending you a hug all the way from Oz. When I was feeling very sad that my father was not there for me any more I received an email from my Canadian partner in the Finding Home Postcard Exchange titled A POEM FOR YOUR FATHER. I have kept it all these years. I was going to write you an email but I thought I would post it here as others may gain from it as well. The poem is by

Maya Angelou.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly. Our eyes, briefly, see with hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken.

Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us.
Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away.
We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves.

And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly.
Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed, they existed. We can be. Be and be better.
For they existed.

The only other words at the bottom of the email were NOW SMILE!
Deb.

[Kate]

Lyn, I am so sorry for your loss. I know it is a very large one. I too love Thanksgiving, and know you will be giving thanks today for the father you had. Sending love from Colorado - Kathy S