Learning to Breathe

Here is a poem I picked up somewhere along the way that is comforting to me at times. I do think about Gessner often and even talk to him. I miss him every single day.

Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral

Death is nothing at all

I have only slipped away into the next room

I am I and you are you

Whatever we were to each other

That we are still

Call me by my old familiar name

Speak to me in the easy way you always used

Put no difference into your ton

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we always enjoyed together

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was

Let it be spoken without effort

Without the ghost of a shadow in it

Life means all that it ever meant

It is the same as it ever was

There is absolute unbroken continuity

What is death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind?

Because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you for an interval

Somewhere very near

Just around the corner

All is well

Nothing is past; nothing is lost

One brief moment and all will be as it was before

How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!