Category: Dealing with family and community loss

Jamie smiles most days now. Some days she hikes and is known to dance around her house at night to country music. She often makes plans to meet with friends for lunch and or take an afternoon drive through the mountains. They are simple pleasure but for Jamie they are immense leaps in living well.

Ten years ago Jamie’s daughter died and smiling was rare. When my son died in 2011 Jamie sent me a letter. She told me I would have grief beyond measure, but also joy.

She told me how she intentionally appreciated the world around her, seeing her daughter’s spirit in all that was beautiful. Jamie felt grief and still does, but she seeks out the gift of life and the memory of her child in all that surrounds her.

I liked that idea and over time I too found my son’s spirit in the rain, the autumn leaves, the birds in flight.

I wrote this poem for him and for all the people who have lost a loved on. Your loved one’s spirit is truly here forever more in all that is beautiful.

HERE FOREVER MORE

You can see me in the forest
Or the wanderings of a stream
You can see me in the flowers
And the edges of your dreams

You can see me in the evening
When the stars are shining bright
You can see me in the shadows
And the trails of morning light

I am here

You can see me in the high clouds
Drifting streaks of wispy white
You can see me in the eagle
As he soars in freedom’s flight

I am here

I am here in every summer
I’m the warmth upon your face
I am here in every winter
In a snowflake’s frozen lace

I am here in every autumn
I’m the color in the leaves
I am here in every springtime
I’m the blossoms on the trees

I am here

You can find me in the mountains
You can find me by the shore
You can find me in the wind
I am here forever more

You are here?

There are times when I am lonely
There are times when I am sad
As I struggle to remember
All the moments that we had

So I walk amongst your forest
And sit beside your stream
I bend to smell the flowers
And hold you in my dreams

I see you in the night sky
As the stars are shining bright
I see you in the sunrise
In the shades of coral light

I see you in the snowflakes
In the drizzle of the fog
I see you in a bird’s flight
And the leaping of a frog

I see you in the summer
In the fields of sunlit gold
I see you in the winter
In the stillness of the cold

I see you in the autumn
As the maples change their hue
I see you in the springtime
In the blossoms dressed with dew

You are here
You are here

I see you in the mountains
I see you by the shore
I see you in the wind
You are here forever more.

(c)shaun brink 2015
all rights are the property of Shaun Brink but please share with anyone who has lost a loved one. I want them to know they are not alone in their grief.

With gentle understanding.
Shaun