Weddings and Funerals

Today was...emotional, to say the least. Kyler and I attended the funeral for Christopher Pace, the three-year-old boy I wrote about here who died last week. After the funeral, we came home and (after hugging our boys tightly) headed out for the wedding celebration of two friends. So, we were immersed in complete opposite ends of the emotional spectrum within a matter of hours.

The boys and I left Kyler to visit with old friends and enjoy the rest of the wedding festivities, and I'm sitting in the (now) quiet house, trying to formulate so many thoughts I've had over the past week into blog posts. We'll see what I come up with.

For now, I just want to leave you with a poem I heard today that I haven't read for awhile. Actually, I held it together quite well at Christopher's funeral today. (Hear my heart, this is hard to put into words. It's not that I can't/won't/don't show any sort of emotion at a funeral, it's just that emotions are so incredibly intense for me now - pregnant - that it is difficult to stop once I begin. I apologize - terrible explanation.) One of Christopher's daycare workers got up during the eulogy portion and shared this poem. She read the first line and I was done. It's incredible to me how intense emotion can sear things into your memory and, regardless of how long it's been, they can come flooding back with a single cue. I knew every word of this poem.

When I was in middle school, my cousin Shari was killed in a single car accident driving home late one night. It was March of her senior year in high school, and I admired her so much. They found this poem among her personal poetry; the author is unknown. (Well, the author of the first half of the poem is unknown. The second half of the poem is attributed to Edward A. Guest. I find it really interesting that she had the two written together as one, but I can't find them together anywhere. They fit nicely.) Anyway, I think it's beautiful, and it always reminds me of Shari.

Life is but a stopping place,
A pause in what's to be,
A resting place along the road
To sweet eternity.

We all have different journeys,
Different paths along the way,
We all were meant to learn some things,
But never meant to stay...

Our destination is a place
Far greater than we know.
For some, the journey's quicker,
For some, the journey's slow.

And when the journey finally ends,
We'll claim a great reward
And find an everlasting peace,
Together with the Lord.

When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom-filled room.
Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little, but not for too long
And not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared,
Miss me, but let me go.

For this is a journey that we all must take
And each must go alone.
It's all a part of the Master's plan,
A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick of heart,
Go to the friends we know
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds.
Miss me, but let me go.