True Love

He looked into her eyes and found years of love and happiness. She looked into his eyes and found acute worry what would it be like without her after 65 years of marriage. A hospice volunteer looked at the wall above his head and found what true love meant, symbolized in a picture of a much younger couple cutting their wedding cake. It was then I, the hospice volunteer realized the amazing and profound dignity of this union, together they created a family of eight children, years of memories, trials and tears...yet somehow it was all culminated in the tangible love felt when these two people looked at each other there was truly magic in the air.

Just for that moment it seemed that all of the cynicism in the world didn't matter... time stood still. As though it recognized that these moments would end it allowed two lovers to communicate in the eternal language of love and in so doing there sprouted a seed of hope in my heart that I too can find such love... not in what the world doesn't have to offer, but in what the world does have to offer.

Change can be brought about in the painful way of loosing a loved one, as the strokes of time finish painting a portrait of a life, a wife, a mother, a sister, a grandmother, a great grandmother, a friend... in the coming of that end there were times spent in the quiet dignity of a lady who filled those roles so wonderfully... her example is not lost, but was found in the loving tribute to her at her funeral.

Her casket offered testimony to an end, her husband walking behind the slow moving casket supported by two of his sons, emerged from the hall with a look in his eyes forever wishing his bride to be by his side... yet embedded in his tears was a hope and a belief that he would see her once again... just not yet as there were more strokes to be painted in his life.

What strokes am I painting in my life? Do I allow the negative goings of this world to envelop my heart in a melancholy of oh I can't make a difference, it's too hard or do I find joy that is brought by simply taking in a deep breath of fresh air. Yes it does rain sometimes it even pours on our lives, and we have to change our plans, but in the end there is a renewed sense of self. The garden of the heart watered by the rain can appreciate more fully the sun of brighter days, brighter colors being painted in contrast to the dark colors allows one's eyes to catch the beauty of the color.

Too long I have played the part of the cynic, now I choose to play the harmony of that song called life. Many times I have wondered what am I suppose to do with my life? Now I understand that there can be deep connections, soul to soul if I but look for them. Yes there's a lot of foul stuff that goes on in the world, but it can be replaced with a gentle smile, a hello to the broken hearted. Change is possible, it doesn't have to be a political buzz word, it can be from the heart.