A Life Passes, Mildred ( Milly) Giles Higbee

This morning I received the call that my step mother has passed away.
My heart aches for my fathers loss and for her families loss.
My step mother and I were not real close and that is due to logistics, not any matters of the heart, as they have been living in Florida since they married and we didn't get to see one another more than once a year for a short visit.
As I was thinking about life and death and how death is as much a part of life as is our birth I thought about how afraid so many people are of this passage. Death is just one more door we walk through in this journey.
I am reminded of something my cousin shared with me that was given to him when his father passed away.
Its really profound. And many times now, I have sent it on to someone at their time of sorrow.

"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 still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we 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 effect, without the trace of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity. 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 round the corner. All is well."

Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918), Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral

While thinking about the cycle of life this morning, out the window next to my desk where I write, is a collection of bird feeders. This morning three goldfinches came to a new thistle feeder. Two males and a female. It is the first time I have seen goldfinches on my land. They sang beautifully not more than 5 feet from me, and they sang as if to sing praises up to Heaven. Thier bright yellow a delight for my eyes.
They were a gift to me this morning. I have no doubt about it.

The pictures are of Milly in December 2004

and not a very good shot of the goldfinches taken through the screen in the window. But it gives you an idea. Somewhere in the Red Oak tree is the 3rd bird.

My life is full of blessings even in sorrow