How They Croaked

The librarians recently recommended How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous by Bragg and O'Malley.

This page on last words really struck me, especially since we've been studying the Revolutionary War and the forming of America.

Robert E. Lee, one of my personal heroes, is compelling even as he moves on.

George Washington's " 'Tis well."

"The fog is rising."
"It is very beautiful over there."

In offer this as a gift to those left behind.

Poems by Mary Oliver

I've been remembering these poems and wanted to treasure it up for myself.

Wild Geese

"WILD GEESE"
by Mary Oliver

"Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine..."

---

---

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

The Journey

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice--

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do--

determined to save

the only life you could save. 

Mary, Everywoman

Watched this today and was struck by the beauty and by being a woman, especially a mom.

Thanks Tim for forwarding that to me.

Satisfying Lie

"Sometimes a satisfying lie can do more good than the awful truth."

Jack Bristow, Alias, S4: E3

Chaplains of the USAT Dorchester

George L. Fox
Alexander D. Goode
Clark V. Poling
John P. Washington

My new heroes

Greatness in the midst of suffering and death

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Chaplains

To make peace

"If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends.  

You talk to your enemies."

- Nikita season 2, episode 12

Well said.
This is so very hard to do.
Especially when my enemy is within.

When I lose my way

It's the place that I come when I lose my way and I have to find it again.

-Sully

Recently I've been realizing that I'm asking old questions in a new way.

I used to ask: How will I find my path? 
Then I asked: How will I stay on my path?

Now I'm asking: How will I find my path again when I lose it?

I want a gentle way back onto my path when I realize I'm off. 
I want to anticipate getting lost from time to time so I can plan in lots of on-ramps for myself, easy and penalty-free.

In a scene from Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, Sully takes Dr. Mike to a beautiful mountainside at sunset and says, "It's the place that I come when I lose my way and I have to find it again."

He knows where to go when he's lost.
He knows what to do when he becomes disoriented.
He's got a plan for where to begin again.
He's found his way back before and has confidence he'll find a way this time, too.

He goes to his special place, stands quietly, and listens.

May such grace and kindness for myself rest upon me.