In memory of my guy, John, who certainly does walk within me, photos taken exactly two years ago today:
This one called “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
John on May 2, 2008, under our dogwood tree:
And we’re walkin’ thru the neighborhood
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,
This 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, close your eyes. Breathe,
And listen for the footfall in your heart.
I am not gone but merely walk within you.
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All images above taken exactly two years ago today and shared here in memory of my guy, who truly does walk within me.
Until we meet again and with all my love forever,
Carol
