October 28, 2006

• Death

  For me,sitting by the deathbed of someone I love is one of the hardest  things to do that I have ever known.

  What do you say ?

  

  We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love.  ~Madame de Stael

  *

  Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

  *

  For everything there is a season,
  And a time for every matter under heaven:
  A time to be born, and a time to die;
  A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
  A time to kill, and a time to heal;
  A time to break down, and a time to build up;
  A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
  A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
  A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
  A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
  A time to seek, and a time to lose;
  A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
  A time to tear, and a time to sew;
  A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
  A time to love, and a time to hate,
  A time for war, and a time for peace.

  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

  *

  Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
  Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
  Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
  I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned

   Edna St. Vincent Millay

  *

  Because I could not stop for Death --
  He kindly stopped for me -

  This entry continued ...-Emily Dickinson

  *

   

  God pours life into death and death into life without a drop being spilled.  ~Author Unknown
  

  *
  I'm not afraid of death.  It's the stake one puts up in order to play the game of life.  ~Jean Giraudoux, Amphitryon, 1929

  *

   Who wants flowers when you're dead?  Nobody.  ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, 1945

  *
  Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.  ~Alice Walker

  *
  Beth could not reason upon or explain the faith that gave her courage and patience to give up life, and cheerfully wait for death. Like a confiding child, she asked no questions, but left everything to God and nature, Father and Mother of us all, feeling sure that they, and they only, could teach and strengthen heart and spirit for this life and the life to come.

  Louisa May Alcott:  in Little Women, chapter 36

  *

  It is worthwhile to live
  and fight courageously
  for sacred ideals.

  O blow ye evil winds
  into my body's fire
  my soul you'll never unravel.

  Even though disappointed a thousand times
  or fallen in the fight
  and everything would worthless seem,

  I have lived amidst eternity --
  Be grateful, my soul --
  My life was worth living.

  He who was pressed from all sides
  but remained victorious in spirit
  is welcomed into the choir of heroes.

  He who overcame the fetters
  giving wings to his mind
  is entering into the golden age of
  the victorious.

  Norbert Capek ,composed in Dresden Prison in 1941, shortly before he was transferred to Dachau concentration camp, where he died in October, 1942

  *
  Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.  ~Socrates

  *

  Death never takes the wise man by surprise; He is always ready to go.  ~Jean de La Fontaine

  *
  Death is not the greatest loss in life.  The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.  ~Norman Cousins
  *
  
  The death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive - perhaps for some purpose which we ought to re-examine.  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
  *

  • 8:30 pm
  • 32 Comments