pictures… remembering yesterday.

Pictures, memories… a little reflection today.

This is over 400 pictures long so if you would like to revisit:

Give my love away…

From the Jewish Kaddish (memorial service). This was read at the Harmony Hill Grief and Loss retreat that I was recently at and it made me think of Beth and her way of moving through the world.

When I die, if you need to weep, cry for someone walking on the street beside you. And when you need me, put your arms around others and give them what you need to give me.

You can love me most by letting hands touch hands and souls touch souls.

You can love me most by sharing your blessings and multiplying your good deeds.

So when all that’s left of me is love, give me away.

notes from Beth

I have a journal that Beth used several years ago just before we were married, that I carry around with me. I have been writing some things in it, I read what she wrote and sometimes I just hold it close as I look out over the landscapes that I am exploring.

One of the entries titled “for Denise Levertov”, a poem that may be something that Beth wrote… I and others haven’t found it anywhere attributed to anyone else. Denise Levertov is a poet that Beth liked and was reading at the time. One friend said that the voice sounded like Levertov but couldn’t find it in her works, so I assume that Beth found inspiration in her works and created the following in that inspiration.

Just when I had
In my youthful frustration
made moves to abandon hope
and action
I was reminded of why we must speak
Recalled the many who
do not live to see
the fruits of their resistance
Who toil in
at best
obscurity and under the heavy
blanket of massive indifference
at worst
ridicule and insult without respite
Realized that you too
in 1991
felt the deep darkness inside
while others used video game words
to describe the horrors we inflicted
And now
you are gone
But the misery continues
purports to worsen
I will speak for both of us.