Hope

I have been busy with a lot of things and I haven’t had time to focus enough to write my blog. Maybe my mind has been busier than my hands. A friend who I look up to has been diagnosed with a life threatening condition. She is a committed believer and such an example to me especially now. As always she is positive and lives every day to the full. 

I have been thinking about how people react to bad news. How should I handle situatsions that are beyond my control? The answer I get is one little word – hope. Instead of trying to explain it I wrote this poem. 

HOPE
To live in hope is to be free

From the bondages the world creates for us

So that we can see

Beyond everything life expects 
Hope is the heart that beats

When everyone has given up on us

Hope is the smile that greets

Even when sadness and grief overwhelms
To have hope is to stand up and face

The day that brings us evil

Without thinking of the place

We have been – just looking forward
Hope is the tiny flickering flame

That was planted in the heart

On the day when we became

The plan God made for us
To see hope is the biggest gift

That we can ever receive

For it gives our spirits a lift

And strengthens out faith
Hope never dies

Not even when our bodies do

Hope never lies

Not even when our minds do

Camille sleeping on the couch – I think we all ought to take time out and just chill. 

Eulogy

My friend Joan passed away peacefully. I know she’s in a better place. I know she was totally prepared for dying. She had battled cancer for some years and she knew. She knew what was coming.

But … my heart aches so much. Even though I know she’s pain free and she’s in heaven. I’m glad that she isn’t suffering anymore and that her life can be celebrated. Our friendship began in primary school and after she left that school and went to a boarding school we wrote letters to each other for a while but eventually lost contact. Many years later I found her on Facebook and we took up our friendship an caught up on all the years in between. She led a remarkable life having grown up on a farm in South Africa and then, as a young woman emigrated to Australia with her family. She was a wonderful daughter, wife, mother and friend. Everyone who knew her loved her. That was just how she was – she was loveable. Always positive and inspired and passionate. Joan had such a wide range of interests and passions. From teaching to geocaching to family history to quilting. No matter what she did she worked at it with every fiber of her being.

I think that maybe earth couldn’t contain all her passion. This world as we know it was too small for everything she embodied. A week before she passed away, when she was very, very ill, she was planning a friendship quilt. Selfless right up to the end.

Joan I will love you for ever and I miss you dearly. You are at peace my friend.