Recently I've been going through many changes. My 2 daughters will have babies this Summer and I just learned last night about another big change coming this year.
Not only that but next week my husband turns 70 years old. It's hit us both hard as we ponder our family moving on without us a bit more every year.
Last Sabbath Robert and I went walking through the local cemetery. It was interesting to see who was all buried there. We both felt the need to talk about where we'd like to be buried some day.
This man I've been wife to for 45 years is my soulmate for sure. We walked around the tombstones and remembered the times we'd spent with several whose bodies are there. In our minds we were pondering where we would like to be buried when it's our turn to go to our rewards.
We spent several hours walking together and alone. I was praying for wisdom to understand what we were doing there. Neither of us is sick. Lots of people turn 70 but I vividly recalled the fatalistic doom that settled over me when I was turning 50.
Here we are 28 years later as God saw fit to keep us here. Yet we know that we won't be here forever so we walked and talked--or didn't.
It amazed me how we both ended up under this huge Ponderosa Pine tree just like we used to have in our yard years ago before the tornado came through. We talked then about how close it was to our field the Lord just gave us--how our sons could drive by Spring and Fall and see us there and know how much we did to give them a good life!!
It was kind of sad but peaceful too. We've been different since then--better and closer. When you're in your 20s, people are invincible. In your 30s, you're a new parent and just tired. In your 40s, people are starting to get a hold of parenting. In your 50s, you end up dealing with your parent's decline. In your 60s you're working hard to make sure your descendants have a good life. In your 70s? I guess we'll find out if the Lord continues blessing us with more years.
With everything going on in the world, it seems insignificant that Robert and I picked our final resting place together. We do everything together and have for 45+ years. Some day we may not. That thought led me to this poem.
Robert is a good forgiver. I haven't been as fluent in forgiveness as my husband is. I've watched him, though, and his peace and calm have inspired me to lay it all down little by little. I hope this poem will inspire each of my readers to lay down your grudges and abuses too.
Happy Sabbath dear friends,
Dawn
Forgiveness
by John Greenleaf Whittier
My heart was heavy, for its trust had been
Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men,
One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
The green mounds of the village burial-place;
Where, pondering how all human love and hate
Find one sad level; and how, soon or late,
Wronged and wrongdoer, each with meekened face,
And cold hands folded over a still heart,
Pass the green threshold of our common grave,
Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave,
Swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave!
