An excerpt from a blog post I wrote recently:
On February 1, God’s need for my mother became greater than our own and she lost her 4-month battle with cancer. She loved Crepe Myrtles, and I can’t ever remember living in a home without at least one in the yard. So, it only seemed fitting that the home she helped my wife and me buy, have a Crepe Myrtle in the yard. It started blooming this week, and it’s such a brilliant shade of fuchsia. I know that my mom is watching over us and I like to think that her light continues to shine on through us.
In a brilliant shade of fuchsia.
After losing my mother, I was presented with the arduous tasks that accompany the passing of a loved one. Insurance paperwork, funeral arrangements, food, family, friends. It was all quite overwhelming for me. I don't know that I ever really had the opportunity to grieve properly, but one day, I don't even know what day, I was in the backyard, feeling rather despondent and missing mom more than I had since she left; when all of a sudden, in that sad, quiet moment in my simple little backyard, I felt just a hint of a warm summer breeze and this overwhelming sensation that while my life wouldn't be the same without her, it would definitely go on. I don't believe in ghosts, but I am religious, and somehow, I know that at that moment, in that tiny brush with summer, my mother was quietly telling me that she would always be with me and that things would be alright. Below is a short poem I wrote later that day. Inspired by my brush with summer in my backyard. Hope you guys enjoy it. C/C is always welcome.
Thanks,
Matthew
"Her Love"
She speaks softly
in the rustling trees;
Words slipping
from bowing branches.
Her love is gentle and steady;
a distant, rolling thunder
easing over the horizon,
disappearing into summer rains.
Her spirit as bright, powerful and fleeting
as a flash of lightning;
an instant of life
kissing the limitless desert.
She slips away;
Slowly waning
on the current of a mighty river
flowing, smooth and vast.
Yet, her memory endures;
Carefully reminding us
with each tiny whisper
of summer wind.
And we know her love
as big as our own.
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