When I Am Gone..........
WHEN I AM GONE
For those I have known, or in some way touched to make a difference, I ask of you - do not cry in sorrow but in joyful celebration of my life on earth. I was born into this world, not of my own choosing, but of Devine Will. Or perhaps, some might believe, by chance, a subject of infinite odds. I was given a body to sustain a mind, a mind to reveal a talent, a talent to serve from the soul. I did the best I could with what I had.
They say no one is even remembered after about one hundred years - or less. No one remains who might have known you. Only dusty old pictures that no one can even recognize. So be it. Let life continue, never remembering who was the first to walk these paths. There are so many branches in each journey. Why should they remember when the body and spirit are gone, and the hearts that were touched have then gone on also?
I was not here to be remembered. I am gone. If there is a " living spirit", you will not know it. Some things can never be known - before. You should be too busy living your own to even worry about those things that no one can ever know. The only legacy we can leave is the warmth of the many emotions we have shared, or introduced. Perhaps these are the only gifts we leave behind. If I had a choice, and could really leave something "everlasting", it would be a love for that deep feeling of awe that wells up when circumstances or experiences bring forth a gasp, a sigh, a silent tear, a quiet smile, a sudden chill, or a flood of joy. I have known all of these - - and I pass them on. I would leave you a sunrise with first rays through gray clouds. A whift of breeze across mirrored water. A leaf rustling when there is nothing to stir it. A turtle, being saved from dangerous travel. A giant buck, frozen like a statue in fading twilight. A tiny ladybug, raised to safety from a sprawling web. A flash of gold, bending a rod to bluegreen water. A bursting pheasant, slashing the mists of morning. And a bulging rose, rising from its tight green blanket.
I have been many places you cold not be. Placing a hand on the shoulder of a wife, kneeling beside her dying husband. Holding a bloody, lifeless newborn in one hand, forcing breath into its lungs until it gasps that first cry of joy. I have looked into the anguished eyes of parents, only to tell them the accident was too severe - we could not save their child. And I have saved the finger of a ten-year-old, too reckless with his father's knife. But that special place, my Dimension, was shared. That quiet place, where there is no happiness - it has been replaced by sheer joy. Where there is never anguish - replaced by total peace. It is a place where souls merge, remain for a time, then move on. Too bad it could not have been included in the earthly order of things.
Let your eyes be a camera on the world, capturing life as I have tried to do. Whether it be a majestic sycamore, a massive grand canyon, or the smallest ant scurring over dry earth, capture it in your mind, and heart - -
That's where I will be.
Donald Landers Cohagan, Fathers' Day, June 16, 2002
For those I have known, or in some way touched to make a difference, I ask of you - do not cry in sorrow but in joyful celebration of my life on earth. I was born into this world, not of my own choosing, but of Devine Will. Or perhaps, some might believe, by chance, a subject of infinite odds. I was given a body to sustain a mind, a mind to reveal a talent, a talent to serve from the soul. I did the best I could with what I had.
They say no one is even remembered after about one hundred years - or less. No one remains who might have known you. Only dusty old pictures that no one can even recognize. So be it. Let life continue, never remembering who was the first to walk these paths. There are so many branches in each journey. Why should they remember when the body and spirit are gone, and the hearts that were touched have then gone on also?
I was not here to be remembered. I am gone. If there is a " living spirit", you will not know it. Some things can never be known - before. You should be too busy living your own to even worry about those things that no one can ever know. The only legacy we can leave is the warmth of the many emotions we have shared, or introduced. Perhaps these are the only gifts we leave behind. If I had a choice, and could really leave something "everlasting", it would be a love for that deep feeling of awe that wells up when circumstances or experiences bring forth a gasp, a sigh, a silent tear, a quiet smile, a sudden chill, or a flood of joy. I have known all of these - - and I pass them on. I would leave you a sunrise with first rays through gray clouds. A whift of breeze across mirrored water. A leaf rustling when there is nothing to stir it. A turtle, being saved from dangerous travel. A giant buck, frozen like a statue in fading twilight. A tiny ladybug, raised to safety from a sprawling web. A flash of gold, bending a rod to bluegreen water. A bursting pheasant, slashing the mists of morning. And a bulging rose, rising from its tight green blanket.
I have been many places you cold not be. Placing a hand on the shoulder of a wife, kneeling beside her dying husband. Holding a bloody, lifeless newborn in one hand, forcing breath into its lungs until it gasps that first cry of joy. I have looked into the anguished eyes of parents, only to tell them the accident was too severe - we could not save their child. And I have saved the finger of a ten-year-old, too reckless with his father's knife. But that special place, my Dimension, was shared. That quiet place, where there is no happiness - it has been replaced by sheer joy. Where there is never anguish - replaced by total peace. It is a place where souls merge, remain for a time, then move on. Too bad it could not have been included in the earthly order of things.
Let your eyes be a camera on the world, capturing life as I have tried to do. Whether it be a majestic sycamore, a massive grand canyon, or the smallest ant scurring over dry earth, capture it in your mind, and heart - -
That's where I will be.
Donald Landers Cohagan, Fathers' Day, June 16, 2002
posted by Dedok at 2:19 PM
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