• God Smiling at Me
• The Translator
• What is Death?
• Love Lives On

God Smiling at Me

I’ve found a place
where I can be free.
I’ve found a whole new beginning
just made for me.

I know only peace
and I never feel pain.
Days are full of sunshine
and never the rain.

I’m no longer old,
I’ve recovered my youth,
And all of my dreams
have become the truth.

I can smile. I can laugh.
I can walk. I can run.
I can hear every whisper.
I can see past the sun.

My body is whole
and my mind is clear.
I know all the answers
and I’m free of all fear.

I know why you mourn me,
I see how you weep.
Your heart’s full of aching
from a love that is deep.

And I’m grateful for loved ones
who hold me so dear,
But remember,
I’ve found a better place here.

I will be there beside you
always nearby,
So don’t mourn me too long,
nor forever cry.

And whenever your sorrow
bears down on your heart,
Think not of my ending,
but of my new start.

For on earth there’s no joy
that I’d ever see,
To compare to the joy
of God smiling at me.

—Author unknown

The Translator

There are times
I fool myself
into thinking God doesn’t hear me,
that He doesn’t understand
my words of prayer.

There are times I believe
God’s too busy,
that while my needs
concern Me,
there are more pressing demands
on His attention.

I know there is a Heaven.
I know there are Angels
who intercede on our behalf.
Can there be any doubt
that Heaven has a new Angel?

For if God had a job open
for a man who would listen
to Our prayers,
to Our needs,
who could understand all languages
of the heart and mind…
wouldn’t Papi be
The Perfect Man for the Job?

Now when I lay me down to sleep,
And I pray the Lord my Soul to keep,
I know there is one special man
who’ll also hear my words,
and help me translate my Love
into God’s Good Work.

For Raffaele Bisconti, my father-in-law, October 24, 1999, whose last career was as a senior simultaneous translator Italin-English for several U.S. Presidents and numerous other executives and officials… and a great tennis player!

What is Death?

Death. It is an act of life. Death is a part of the circle of life. We do not fear winter, even though we do not celebrate its coming the same way we celebrate the spring. Winter is a time of death. The world seems to lose its vitality. The days are short, the trees have no leaves. The buzz of the insects and the song of birds are seldom heard.

Yet, is winter the end? Have the lives that appear to have vanished really disappeared? If all the insects die, and the grass dies, and the flowers die, how can they ever return?

Perhaps it is our notion of death that is wrong. Ancient peoples feared the winter. Would life ever return? How long would this blight of cold and death last? For them, winter was a threat, and they prayed for its end and the return of Sun and Life.

Today, we understand winter for what it is, only one quarter of the circle of seasons that repeat over and over and over. We no longer cower at the first snowflakes, nor fear for our mortal lives from the harshness of its cold. Winter has become for man a “matter of fact.” While not all revel in its beauty, nor contemplate is many mysteries, we do not treat it as a matter of life and death. We know it is just life, another phase in its continuum.

Death, too, is just another part of the continuum of life. Yet, we have terror in our hearts over death, over its apparent finality and the perceived separation from those we love. But right now, if we close our eyes and open our hearts, we can feel the presence of all who have died, who have left their physical bodies and moved on. We can talk to them, feel their love, and know in our hearts that they are whole, and free, and very much a part of life.

Just as the Ancients overcame their fear of winter, so too shall man one day soon overcome his fear of death. Consider this: the birth of a child into our world could be considered the death of a life in the spiritual realm. This most sacred of all events in our world marks the transition from one form of life to another.

We do not mourn the death of a seed. We celebrate the birth of a flower. The seed is no more. Yet, its life, its essence, lives on in the flower.

Let us know that this is God’s truth. Our spirit, that part of our being that was with us at birth, that animates us, that fills us with love, and that seeks out all of life’s experiences—that spirit is eternal. It never vanishes. Its expression of God’s love in physical form will change with the seasons of life. But the magic and mystery of its spirit goes on forever.

Love Lives On

I could not heal you
nor take away your pain.
I could not comfort you
and take away your fear.
Only God can do these things.

Today I stand here and know
that there are things I can do—
Things I could not
if it wasn’t for you.

I can see your love
in the lives of my children,
and in the kind hearts of grandchildren
you will never know.

I will feel your love
in every sliced apple.
Taste your love
in every egg noodle.
Hear your love
in every late night radio station.

Your life and your love
made my life possible.
Thank you
for such a magnificent blessing.

I know the death
of Alice Kitner Shook
is not the death
of Grammy.

For after each of us
is dead and gone,
All our love
Lives on.

Grammy is my maternal grandmother