Take a quiet moment. A moment when all is still and silent, and the loss of a loved one wears heavy on your heart. Let it hurt. Ache. Let your tears roll and the melancholy mood fill your soul to bursting.

There, in the depths of your grief, Listen.

Hear the beat of your heart, and Know that the one you lost is with you always, as long as your heart beats.

Share.

A couple of memories from Canisius have come back to me in recent days.

"Why does man create? Man creates...because he dies."

"Who is your hero?"

There are times when one can feel awful lonely. I had times like that especially my first year at Cornell...not lonely, really, just reflective and very receptive to my mind's emotion. They are times for poetry, and when they come, it's a fool that lets them pass without experiencing the depth of feeling that accompanies.

What is the best that can be said about someone?

Thanks, God, for the time.

Here goes my Dad, off to work a basketball game. Now he's back, and off to the radio station for taping his show, then to the high school. And always, always, me so proud that he's my dad.

For everything.

For tennis, when he so wanted me to run.
For his love. For his taking me with him. Everywhere.
For his pride. In me, in all of us.
For his gift of himself in everything.

To do all things well. Or not do them at all.
For being the best.

For forgetting all the times I let him down. And remembering everytime I didn't.

Watch over him, God. Keep his memory with me forever.

And Dad...

hurry back.

The Angel

Come now and now my love,
And leave your dying desert to the rains.
Give up your treasured wounds
Let go the tempting memory of the pain.
Give up the vows you've taken
And you will live
And you will learn to fly away
And you will fly.

And you will live my love,
And see the stars regain your starless night.
And you will find your sun
And learn the magic meaning of its light.
All souls will be yours to cherish
Rising, falling in their earthly flight
And you will fly.

And I would love my love,
And he would seek a refuge in my eyes.
But no resource of love
Could keep him from the fire
Where loving dies.
And I will reach out my hand as he was
Falling, falling to his home on high
And he would fly.

Give up your treasured wounds,
Let go the tempting memory of the pain.
Give up the vows you've taken
And you will live
And you will learn to fly again
And you will fly.

— Ed Freeman