Thank you Gran for helping me become the honest and respective person I've become. I will be sure to pass down your gravy and biscuit recipe, your jello cakes and your vegetable soup recipes to my children. I will remember the flowers you planted, the foods you made, the songs you sang and will always remember that tree roots can cry too.
I'll remember to sing the "20 Froggies" song to my children and if I ever come across a pawpaw patch, I'll know to pick one up and put it in my basket.Thank you Gran, and I will miss you always.
The Next Place by Warren Hanson
The next place that I gowill be as peaceful and familiaras a sleepy summer Sunday and a sweet, untroubled mind.
And yet….it won’t be anything like any place I’ve ever been…or seen…or dreamed of in the place I leave behind.
I won’t know where I’m going,and I won’t know where I’ve beenas I tumble through the always and look back toward the when.
I’ll glide beyond the rainbows. I’ll drift above the sky. I’ll fly into the wonder,without ever wondering why.
I won’t remember getting there, Somehow I’ll just arrive. But I’ll know that I belong there and will feel much more alive than I have ever felt before.
I will be absolutely free of the things that I held onto that were holding onto me.
The next place that I go will be so quiet and so still that the whispered song of sweet belonging will rise up to fil lthe listening sky with joyful silence, and with unheard harmonies
of music made by no one playing, like a hush upon a breeze.
There will be no room for darkness in that place of living light.Where an ever-dawning morning pushes back the dying night.
The very air will fill with brilliance, as the brightly shining sun and the moon and half a million stars are married into one.
The next place that I go Won’t really be a place at all.There won’t be any seasons—winter, summer, spring or fall—Nor a Monday,Nor a Friday, Nor December,Nor July. And the seconds will be standing still…while the hours hurry by.
I will not be a boyor girl,a woman or a man.I’ll simply be just,simply me. No worse or better than.
My skin will not be dark or light.I won’t be fat or tall. The body I once lived inwon’t be part of me at all.
I will finally be perfect.I will be without a flaw.I will never make one more mistake,or break the smallest law.
And the me that was impatient,or was angry or unkind,will simply be a memory.The me I left behind.
I will travel empty-handed.There is not one single thingI have collected in my lifethat I would ever want to bringexcept….The love of those who loved me,and the warmth of those who cared.The happiness and memories and magic that we shared.
Though I will know the joy of solitude…I’ll never be alone.I’ll be embracedby all the family and friendsI’ve ever known.Although I might not see their faces,all our hearts will beat as one,and the circle of our spirits Will shine brighter than the sun.
