GOD'S GENTLE EARTH

Gentle earth that cradles blue-watered lakes. Rolling hills that tumble down to flowing rivers. Hard-faced canyon walls that fall away to rocky floors below. Blowing winds that turn wheat fields into flowing golden hair.

Deep in the earth, caverns hide a landscape of majestic downward growing stalactites and upward reaching stalagmites. Formations that begin and continue with simple water droplets meeting limestone rock. Bleached white driftwood on rocky beaches. Hot white sand on tropical shores. Struggling through snowdrifts to a welcoming fire waiting in a cabin in the woods.

Walking slowly through life and not missing the small but beautiful moments. Understanding the importance of the seemingly insufficient things. Sitting quietly and listening. Staring up at the stars on a starlit night and seeing a blazing star streak across the black sky. Letting the moon light your way home. Taking the road less traveled for it will make all the difference.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

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In grieving sometimes the simple but beautiful things in life get lost to us. The hurt, the pain, the numbness shuts us off and closes our eyes to those things that have the ability to give us great joy.

Let us pledge to one another that we will once a day earnestly try to find at least one thing, no matter how small, that brings us joy. Really open our eyes and ears. See those things you have seen without seeing; hear those things you have heard without hearing.

Give yourself permission to smile and find peace in that moment. Your loved one would want that for you. They left us because they were looking for an end to pain. How sad they would be to know that by ending the pain in their lives, it robbed us of the joy in ours. Let us be good to ourselves if only for one moment in each day. It may be a small beginning but it is a beginning. The first step in many.