Your Dying Spouse 729 - The Sound of Silence {Five Minute Friday}

And now it's time for ASL; even a whisper is exquisitely painful, and so muffled as to be unintelligible.

This step was expected, and now that it's here...I don't mind.

Sure, I can't talk, can't sing ("Thank God!" say the dogs and neighbours).

But it's not something to resent, because not being able to speak opens a door into the silent world of those who have so much still to say...if only someone would understand them by their hands.

Barb does. A gift and a discipline in my wife that I had never fully appreciated until now.

An it's fun. I do a lot of practising.

Barb, you see, has a lovely singing voice, and she is quite beautiful. So I decided to compliment her.

I signed..."You sing like Ozzy Osbourne."

She could not quite believe what she was 'hearing'. "What?"

So I repeated. "You sing like Ozzy!"

Definitely nonplussed (because of the honour, of course), she was speechless.

So I went on. "And you look like Mick Jagger."

Just a few more feet to dig this hole, and I'll come out in China.

Ol’ James, he said it so serene,

that trials would give the answer,

but did he, could he really mean

that this would include cancer?

I’ve fought this bastard for an age

and now am near the end,

and here, upon the final page,

is enemy now my friend?

Can it be that what’s been taken

is the greatest gift of all,

and far from being sad, forsaken,

my illness is my call

to put on my Big Boy Pants

and join the Lord of the Dance?

Now, I'll bet that you were expecting, as a musical selection, Simon and Garfunkel's The SOund Of Silence. Nah. I'm more in the mood for Van Halen, so let's Jump!

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.