Last night- at a family gathering, I read a photocopied letter written 100plus years ago..... The words were haunting and the images stayed with me through the night....... the description of a little girl, knowing she was about to die, and saying good-bye to her papa...... the request for lots of flowers on the grave "for you know how I love flowers"- the words- our little Forest left us last night..... the image of the rocking chair in which she sat- in which they had carried her from room to room.....
Tonight I sat around another table- in the same town in which little Forset must have lived- and died. These people at the table are really strangers to me- though I liked them on sight and we have a blood connection that goes back through the generations. They had speant their morning searching the death records and have discovered what certainly must be the recording of the end of Forest' life at the age of 12 1/2..... There was a moment, as they shared the story- the tender letter, the realization that Forest could only have been a preteen- the putting together of the pieces.... there was a moment in which we honored Forest- we honored the pain of her parents- we wondered about them..... we cared for them.... yes, in that brief moment in time, we loved on them....
It is odd to think that a child who passed briefly through this life would be remembered 100 years later...... that members of her family, so much time later, would shed a brief tear, pause a brief pause.... remember that she lived....
It makes me stop and look back- stop and wonder- at all the moements, in all the lives, that have affected my very own life. All the assumptions about life and death.... Grief, resolved or unresolved impacts those who follow. A life well lived will change the life that follows it.... Attention to first things first and doing the right thing will impact those who will follow in our footsteps...
It makes me realize the power of a letter or a story - to evoke emotion- to lead our hearts, to persuade- to change us....
Dan was finishing "The Shack" as I came home tonight...... Powerful book....interesting story... I highly recommend it..... I listened as he went back and read exerpts from it, watched his face change as he described certain scenes.... Certainly parts of the authors life have crept into that story..... as he shares he blesses us...... As he interrprets events- he gives us new eyes through which to view the unseen world around us...
" all that remains is a story...... maybe that's all there ever was" Carole Radziwill
I wonder what will be remembered of our stories...... I wonder how the next generation will be affected by the choices we make..... I wonder how we have been programmed by the choices of those who went before....
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I am hoping to have that same kind of impact!
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