Your Dying Spouse 629 - You Only Keep What You Release {FMF}

There's a cheesy old expression from the 70s (when cheesy was hip!) that goes something like:

If you love something, let it go. If it doesn't come back, it was never yours.

Kind of romantic and freethinking, right? And let's not forget noble and self-sacrificial!

The problem is, it's totally wrong.

Nothing was every yours. At best, you had it on loan from God.

Ownership is the thing that makes dying hard. I think of Barb, the dogs, the house, and my very life as mine, and it feels like they're being taken from me.

But if I willingly let go, surrendering them all to the God whose they are in the first place, I'm not stepping back from love.

I can love all the more, because my heart is not clogged with a desperate greed.

Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem,

or so the Romans said;

to face death with resolution,

see yourself already dead.

Let go of all you cherish

and the dreams you hold so dear,

gird your soul to perish,

the last casting-off of fear.

Perhaps you’ll meet Achilles,

with Hector by his side,

and there will stand Ulysses

with a horse for you to ride.

And ride you will to Heaven, through the shining gate

where waits your nail-scarred Saviour, author of your fate.

This sonnet was originally written as a comment for Jeanne Takenaka's marvellous blog post Hope: A Violent Hope.

If anyone really wanted a condition report, well, things are worse. It hurts too much, it's impossible to take a good breath, and those bumps I can see in the mirror aren't really looking like a six-pack. I remain, however, cheerful of heart in the grim darkness, and hopeful in the face of hopelessness. I'm either a saint, or an idiot. You choose.

There is a God, He has a plan, and I'm not Him.

Music from the Marshall Tucker Band, with Heard It In A Love Song.

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.