My beloved grandfather, Jim McGuinness, passed away this morning.
He had been suffering for quite some time, and we knew that this was coming, but that still doesn’t mean his passing doesn’t hurt. My mom flew to Florida and was with him till the very end, saying that yesterday he had about 30 people come to spend time with him and say good-bye.
I still can’t believe he’s gone.
There’s an excerpt from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet that I always read when someone I love passes away. Somehow, it always makes the loss a little bit easier, since it gives me a different perspective on everything:
You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honor.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.
RIP, Pop-Pops.
I love you, always and forever.
And in my heart, I know that you’ll be dancing at my wedding.
