Give me away

So like I said, there were these deaths and they shook me on a couple of levels.  I'm not sure what it was about these ones........  Quite obviously not my first dealings with death.  Not on a personal or professional level.  It's not my first time experiencing a bunch of deaths in a short time.   Nor is it the intimacy of the relationships, I've lost a parent and a child so there's nothing unique about that either.  Maybe it's that I'll turn the "F" word next year.  But something has made me consider my own mortality.  Hospice would say that's pretty normal given the circumstances.  The question isn't so much the grief, but how do we respond to it.  A life lesson actually.  It's not what happens to us that matters but what we do with it, how we respond to it.  And honestly, I haven't been so great at responding to the things that have happened to me.  But this new found awareness of my own immortality teaches me that things can change in a minute.  They often do.  But there is time to change things.  And tomorrow I'll talk about what changes I'd like to make and how those pesky elves fit in to the plan.  But for today I want to share a poem about giving love away.  It's from the Second Helping of Chicken Soup of the Soul.  Back in the day when there was only 2 books.  Random piece of trivia is that there are now over 105 different titles.  Anyways, someone gave me the book as my mom was dying.  I used the poem at her funeral.  It comforted me.  Later in a grief support group I would hear the same question "what do you do with the love?"  I forgot all about the poem until Dick died.  I wanted to quote it but the version on line isn't the same.  Do you know how hard it is to track down one specific book of those 105 Chicken Soup books when you're not even sure you're looking for the right one?  I found the right book on my shelf yesterday.  Funny, I thought I'd given most of them away. 

THE LEGACY

When I die, give what is left of me to children.
If you need to cry, cry for your brothers walking beside you.
Put your arms around anyone and give them what you need to give me.
I want to leave you with something, something that is better than words or sounds.
Look for me in the people I have known and loved.
And if you cannot live without me, then let me live on in your eyes, your mind and your acts of kindness.
You can love me most by letting hands touch hands and letting go of children that need to be free.
Love does not die, people do.
So when all that is left of me is love...
Give me away....

That ladies and gentlemen is the poem of the year.  If I designed sympathy cards that's what I would write.  Love does not die, people do.  So when all that is left of me is love, give me away.