When Tomorrow Starts Without Me...

When tomorrow starts without me,
and I'm not there to see;
If the sun should rise and find your eyes,
all filled with tears for me;
I wish so much you wouldn't cry,
the way you did today,
while thinking of the many things,
we didn't get to say.

I know how much you love me,
as much as I love you,
and each time that you think of me,
I know you'll miss me too;
But when tomorrow starts without me,
please try to understand,
that an Angel came and called my name,
and took me by the hand,
and said my place was ready,
in heaven far above,
and that I'd have to leave behind,
all those I dearly love.

But as I turned to walk away,
a tear fell from my eye,
for all life, I'd always thought,
I didn't want to die.
I had so much to live for,
so much yet to do,
it seemed almost impossible,
that I was leaving you.

I thought of all the yesterdays,
the good ones and the bad,
I thought of all the love we shared,
and all the fun we had.
If I could relive yesterday,
just even for awhile,
I'd say goodbye and kiss you
and maybe see you smile.

But then I fully realized,
that this could never be,
for emptiness and memories,
would take the place of me.
And when I thought of worldly things,
I might miss come tomorrow,
I thought of you, and when I did,
my heart was filled with sorrow.

But when I walked through heaven's gates,
I felt so much at home.
When God looked down and smiled at me,
from His great golden throne,

He said, "This is eternity,
and all I've promised you".
Today for life on earth is past,
but here it starts anew.
I promise no tomorrow,
but today will always last,
and since each day's the same day,
there's no longing for the past.

But you have been so faithful,
so trusting and so true.
Though there were times you did some things,
you knew you shouldn't do.
But you have been forgiven
and now at last you're free.
So won't you take my hand
and share my life with me?

So when tomorrow starts without me,
don't think we're far apart,
for every time you think of me,
I'm right here, in your heart.

David M. Romano

A Letter From Heaven

To my dearest family, some things I'd like to say,
Though first of all to let you know I arrived OK.
I'm writing this from heaven, here I dwell with Spirit above,
Here there's no more tears of sadness, here is just eternal love.
Please do not be unhappy because I am out of sight,
Remember I am with you every morning, noon and night.
That day I had to leave you when my life on earth was through,
Heavens warmth covered me and said "I welcome you".
"It's good to have you back again, you were missed while you were gone,
As for your dearest family, they'll be here later on.
We need you here so badly, you're part of our great plan,
There's so much that we have to do, to help our mortal man."

Spirit gave me a list of things that were wished for me to do,
And foremost on that list - was to watch and care for you.
And when you lie in your bed at night the day's chores put to flight,
Spirit and I are closest to you...in the middle of the night.
When you think of my life on earth, and all those loving years,
Because you are only human, they are bound to bring you tears.

But do not be afraid to cry a while; it helps relieve the pain.
Remember there would no flowers unless there was some rain.
I wish I could explain to you all that Spirit has planned.
If I were to tell you, you would not understand.
One thing is for certain, though my life on earth is over,
I'm closer to you now than I ever was before.
There are many rocky roads ahead of you and many hills to climb,
But together we can do it by taking one day at a time.

It was always my philosophy and I'd like it for you too;
That as you give unto the world, the world will give to you.
If you can help somebody who's in sorrow and in pain,
Then you can say to me at night.."My day was not in vain".
So now I am contented...that my life was worthwhile,
Knowing as I passed along the way I made somebody smile.

So if you meet someone who is sad and feeling low;
Just lend a hand to pick him up as on your way you go.
When you're walking down the street and you've got me on your mind;
I'm walking in your footsteps, only half a step behind.
And when it's time for you to go from that body to be free,

Remember you're not going...you're coming here to me.

*I would love to tell you who the author of this poem was, but this was sent to me by a friend who didn't know the name of the one who wrote these thoughtful lines.

This poem was written by a very brave lady towards the end of her battle with breast cancer. It makes you think….

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER
By Erma Bombeck

I would have invited friends over to dinner,
Even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the GOOD living room and
Worried much less about the dirt when someone
Wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to
My grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would never have insisted the
Car windows be rolled up on a
Summer day because my hair had
Just been teased and sprayed.

I would have burned the pink candle
Sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.
I would have sat on the lawn with
My children and not worried about grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less
While watching television and more while watching life.

I would have gone to bed when I was sick
Instead of pretending the earth would go into a
Holding pattern if I wasn't there for the day.
I would never have bought anything
Just because it was practical,
Wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy,
I'd have cherished every moment realizing that the
Wonderment growing inside me was the only chance
In life to assist God in a miracle.
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said,
"Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more, "I love you's" and more,
"I'm sorry's" but mostly, given another shot at life,
I would seize every minute ...
look at it and really see it ...
live it ... and never give it back.

Mary Elizabeth Frye (1904-) 

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the softly falling snow.

I am the gentle showers of rain,

I am the fields of ripening grain.

I am in the morning hush,

I am in the graceful rush

Of beautiful birds in circling flight.

I am the starshine of the night.

I am in the flowers that bloom,

I am in a quiet room.

I am in the birds that sing,

I am in each lovely thing.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there -- I do not die

...this following version was amended by anon from the original...

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there, I did not die.

There is no death!
What seems so is transition;
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian,
Whose portal we call death.

~ Henry W. Longfellow

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

I'm Free

Don't Grieve for me for now I'm free,
I'm following the path God has laid you see.
I took His hand when I heard Him call,
I turned my back and left it all.
I could not stay another day,
To laugh, to love, to work, to play.
Tasks left undone must stay that way,
I found that peace at the close of day.
If my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joys.
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss,
Oh, yes, these things I too will miss.
Be not burdened with times of sorrow.
I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.
My life's been full, I've savored much,
Good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.
Perhaps my time seemed all too brief,
Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.
Lift up your hearts and peace to thee,
God wanted me now, He set me free

Rupert Brooke 1887 - 1915

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Henry Van Dyke 1852 - 1933

Parable of Immortality

I am standing by the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a peck of white cloud
just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says :
- 'There she goes!

Gone where?
Gone from my sight - that is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the places of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says:
- 'There she goes! ',
there are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout :
- 'Here she comes!'

Death is nothing at all

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you,
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone,
wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow,
laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Pray smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort,
without the trace of a shadow in it.
Life means all that it ever meant,
it is the same as it ever was.
There is unbroken continuity,
why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you
somewhere very near
just around the corner.
All is well

Christina Georgina Rossetti 1830 - 1894


Remember

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
    You tell me of our future that you planned:
    Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
    And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
    For if the darkness and corruption leave
    A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
    Than that you should remember and be sad.

Bright be the Place of Thy Soul

Bright be the place of thy soul!
    No lovelier spirit than thine
E'er burst from its mortal control,
   In the orbs of the blessed to shine.

On earth thou wert all but divine,
    As thy soul shall immortally be;
And our sorrow may cease to repine,
   When we know that thy God is with thee.

Light be the turf of thy tomb!
    May its verdure like emeralds be:
There should not be the shadow of gloom
    In aught that reminds us of thee.

Young flowers and an evergreen tree
    May spring from the spot of thy rest:
But nor cypress nor yew let us see;
    For why should we mourn for the blest?

ROBERT SOUTHEY 1774 - 1843


Among His Books

My days among the Dead are past;
    Around me I behold,
Where'er these casual eyes are cast,
   The mighty minds of old:
MY never-failing friends are they,
With whom I converse day by day.

With them I take delight in weal
    And seek relief in woe;
And while I understand and feel
    How much to them I owe,
My cheeks have often been bedewed
With tears of thoughtful gratitude.

My thoughts are with the Dead; with them
    I live in long-past years,
Their virtues love, their faults condemn,
    Partake their hopes and fears,
And from their lessons seek and find
Instruction with an humble mind.

MY hopes are with the Dead; anon
    My place with them will be,
And I with them shall travel on
    Through all Futurity;
Yet leaving here a name, I trust,
That will not perish in the dust.

RICHARD CRASHAW 1613-1649


An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife who Died
and were Buried Together

To these, whom death again did wed,
This grave's the second marriage-bed.
For though the hand of Fate could force,
'Twixt soul and body a divorce,
It could not sever man and wife,
Because they both lived but one life.
Peace, good reader, do not weep;
Peace, the lovers are asleep:

They, sweet turtles, folded lie,
In the last knot that love could tie.
Let them sleep, let them sleep on,
Till this stormy night be gone.
And the eternal morrow dawn,
Then the curtains will be drawn,
And they waken with that light,
Whose day shall never sleep in night.

JOHN FLETCHER 1579-1625


Weep no More

Weep no more, nor sigh, nor groan,
Sorrow calls no time that's gone:
Violets pluck'd, the sweetest rain
Makes not fresh nor grow again.
Trim thy locks, look cheerfully;
Fate's hid ends eyes cannot see.

John Donne 1572-1631

Holy Sonnets X

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

JOHN CLARE 1793-1864

Infants' Graves

Infants' graves are steps of angels, where
Earth's brightest gems of innocence repose.
God is their parent, and they need no tear,
He takes them to his bosom from earth's woes,
A bud their lifetime and a flower their close.
Their spirits are an Iris of the skies,
Needing no prayers; a sunset's happy close,
Gone are the bright rays of their soft blue eyes;
Flowers weep in dewdrops o'er them, and the gale gently sighs.

Their lives were nothing but a sunny shower,
Melting on flowers as tears melt from the eye,
Their deaths were dewdrops on heaven's amaranth bower,
And tolled on flowers as summer gales went by.
They bowed and trembled, and they left no sigh,
And the sun smiled to show their end was well.
Infants have naught to weep for ere they die;
All prayers are needless, beads they need not tell,
White flowers their mourners are, nature their passing-bell.

There is no such thing as "Death".

Everything in creation is energy.
Energy cannot die. It simply transforms.

We grieve because we miss the company of the one we loved.
We miss touching them and sharing the journey together.
Letting go is painful. It is difficult to see that 'death' is in fact a new beginning.

Guidance

I pretend I do not know you yet you are always by my side,
warning me to tell the children not to run into the street
or go too close to the edge of the river, urging me to drive carefully.
You govern my life, yet you have no name for I have not given you one.
But when I meet you face-to-face you are not always so terrifying
for you make me aware of how much I can love.

~ Anonymous

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Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death.
When a life has been lived completely honestly,
completely successfully, or just completely,
the correct response to death's perfect punctuation mark is a smile.

~ Julie Burchill

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Unable are the Loved to die
For Love is Immortality.

~ Emily Dickinson

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"The Rose"

It's the heart afraid of dying, that never learns to dance;
It's the dream afraid of waking, that never takes the chance;
It's the one who won't be taken, who cannot seem to give;
And the soul afraid of dying, that never learns to live.

~ Bette Midler

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Suicide is about life, being in fact the sincerest form of criticism life gets.

~ Wilfrid Sheed

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Suicide sometimes proceeds from cowardice, but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it;
since as many live because they are afraid to die, as die because they are afraid to live.

~ Charles Caleb Colton, 1829

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Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself,
the most comforting words of all; This, too, shall pass.

~ Ann Landers

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'Death' is a natural cycle of life,

the transformation of consciousness and states of energy and information

from which we move into higher and more refined vibratory frequencies.