Remember

Reflections on losing those we love

Lost another dear Saint this week and I have been pulling on all kinds of threads of art to process it all. Remember seems like a good word in response to it all.

Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 
“Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore.” 

Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, and rain clouds continually darken your sky. 

Remember him before your legs—the guards of your house—start to tremble; and before your shoulders—the strong men—stoop. 

Remember him before your teeth—your few remaining servants—stop grinding; and before your eyes—the women looking through the windows—see dimly. 

Remember him before the door to life’s opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades. Now you rise at the first chirping of the birds, but then all their sounds will grow faint. 

Remember him before you become fearful of falling and worry about danger in the streets; before your hair turns white like an almond tree in bloom, and you drag along without energy like a dying grasshopper, and the caperberry no longer inspires sexual desire. 

Remember him before you near the grave, your everlasting home, when the mourners will weep at your funeral. 

Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well. For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.”

My poem: Remember written 5/11/17

Remember...
because you're forgetting,
Hello no longer means what it did,
goodbye, means more than we dare think upon too long. 

Remember...
yes remember,
because tomorrow doesn't mean anything anymore. 

Remember...
it's a roll of the dice,
but when it lands on lucky 7,
the sliver of a smile comes tumbling out of the void. 

Remember...
because soon you will not,
a small grace it is, 
to lessen the pain of being forgotten. 

Remember...
I do, for now,
but soon,
I won't either. 

Art: selection from Gustav Klimt’s: Medicine