Sharing a Gift

This is a poem by John O’Donohue which was read at a remembrance service this week at Dartmouth for patients in Palliative Care. This poem was shared with me yesterday by Dr. Cory Ingram, M.D., who was present during Carolyn's time in Hospice Care at ISJ-Mankato. Cory is a graduate of Central College, Carolyn's alma mater in her hometown of Pella, Iowa. Cory is on a one year Palliative Care Fellowship at Dartmouth under the tutelage of Ira Byock, M.D., the author of Dying Well: Peace and Possibilities at the End of Life and The Four Things That Matter Most.

Beloved ones,
Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts
where no storm or night or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn
brightening over our lives,
awakening beneath the dark
a further adventure of color.

The sound of your voice
found for us
a new music
that brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
quickened in the joy of its being;
you placed smiles like flowers
on the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
with wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief,
your spirit was alive, awake, complete.

We look toward each other no longer
from the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
as close to us as we are to ourselves.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
we know our soul’s gaze is upon your face,
smiling back at us from within everything
to which we bring our best refinement.

Let us not look for you only in memory,
where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
beside us when beauty brightens,
when kindness glows
and music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,
darkest winter has turned to spring.
May this dark grief flower with hope
in every heart that loves you.

May you continue to inspire us:
to enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love
until we see your beautiful face again
in that land where there is no more separation,
where all tears will be wiped form our mind,
and where we will never lose you again.

John O’Donohue
To Bless the Space Between Us (pp. 170-1)