Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Related to Unflinching

Related to Unflinching by Teri H Hoover
December 14, 2014


Related to UNFLINCHING-     Synonyms
determined, dogged, grim, implacable, relentless, unappeasable, unyielding, unrelenting
 
 
 
You are related to unflinching. If your feeling courageous you might even admit it.
 
The word that holds my heart is unrelenting. I used it to describe a photo my brother just sent me. It is not mine to share. So with words imagine.
 
 
A view through a door with a window to a small dimly lit mud room. Perched on a small table a rail thin woman, with her toes hanging, forgotten, over the edge. She is turned away from us and looks out a window into the dark, cold evening. Her arms are curled up around her and her bald head rests in her lovely hand.   
 
 
The photo is possibly one of the most beautiful images I have ever seen.
 
 It is terribly beautiful. 
 
It is unrelenting.



a prayer for all those suffering- xo teri


Friday, April 12, 2013

Carried into Light




Backyard Garden, Blacksburg, VA- 04-05-2013



We float between sunlight and shadows
Until we curve into new life.



Williamsville, NY

Grandma Helen-
February 5, 1911 - April 8, 2013

The welcoming smile, the laugh, the love. 

Her arrival in Heaven will be heralded with the chirping of chickadees, sparrows and cardinals. Kittens will purr and curl and dogs noses will nuzzle in. Her siblings, friends and of course Elmer and Mary Anne will be there. She has waited so long to see them again.

She brought a bit of heaven to earth. Faithful and joyful. Her greetings were with an open heart and smile. A visit was filled with heartfelt love. And her good byes were a blessing; standing in the door way with a wave and a smile, you never saw her leave that space. She waited with a prayer in her heart until you had gone from view.


So we now stand in that doorway and wave good bye. Now we will wait, with a prayer in ours hearts. She is gone from our view, but forever with us.   I now look forward to the greetings and hugs when I see her again.

Forever with us- but I am missing her still.






Friday, September 21, 2012

Distinguishable Outlines

This post is dedicated to the remembrance of a dear friend, who passed away on Sept 15. Her funeral was today. Rest in peace Grace-



Blackcreek, NY July 2009

In the dusk before the day, I carry a basket of paper to the alley for trash pick up. There, floating though my head, I catch this thought:  "You are walking too close to the overhang of the garage." Too close, to the potential September spider webs, of southwest Virginia.  I veer away from the garage, toward the dying tomato plants. The unproductive, dying, tomato plants.  There is a thick fog holding up daylight, and spider webs, and dying tomato plants. 

In the dusk before the day, I wonder if there is a word for morning dusk.

***

It is now evening, I come back to thoughts, left hanging in  astronomical dawn,  or more correctly, astronomical twilight. Dawn- of course, the flip side of dusk. Who knew? Twilight happens in the morning too. All my deepest thoughts, tangle into those who have pondered longer, and more intensely than I.  The most illuminating line was this sentence, "For a considerable interval after the beginning of morning twilight and before the end of evening twilight, sky illumination is so faint that it is practically imperceptible." 

Why are thoughts about things that are "practically imperceptible" a comfort for me today? Talking about a funeral would just be too hard.

I ponder that I have been away from my blog for awhile, again. I am not remorseful. I may have been remorseful yesterday,  but not today.

In this writing I find comfort. Like a quilt, we create a place to find warmth. Although I write from this place of sadness - I also am filled with a calm. It could be a numbness, but I think it is calm. I think of my friend and know that her faith has brought her home.

Life happens, in the bright sunny spots and the twilight. We find ourselves, veering away from possible unseen spider webs, toward dying tomato plants. We find our distinguishable outlines, as the sun comes up. There is grace all around us.



Distinguishable Outlines by Teri H Hoover

Within the eye of the storm, I linger.  In the husk of ashen twilight
where damp bolts of emotion lean into each other. 
 
We stand in bundles.
Like fabric before it's cut.

Not trapped, but waiting.

Tears, gently folded into the corner of a kleenex.
I stand. The storm comes in ripping at the seams.

Shook to the core, we remain- this bundle.
Leaning into the storm, that climbed and claimed.



Sunday Wordle- the words are:damp, trapped, husk, shook, bring, corners, bundles, climbed, bolts, storm, remain, ash



It was a spectacular day. My friend Grace's favorite kind of day.
Can't you see her pedaling along that path?




Remember to love, breathe and love. Oh and buy lots of fabric
xoxo teri
  
Easy Piecers Quilt Group- January 2012-


                                          Easy Piecer Quilt Group - May 2012-(thank you Kathy)



Rise, Set, and Twilight Definitions  are from the Astronomical Applications Department, (The United States Naval Observatory (USNO)3450 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20392-5420) The U.S. Naval Observatory computes, from fundamental astronomical reference data, the position, brightness, and other observable characteristics of celestial bodies, as well as the circumstances of astronomical phenomena.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

a half mile from home

December 08, 2011- Small Stones
a half mile from home  by  Teri H Hoover
`

 I live in Blacksburg, Virginia. Almost everyday, my dog Pepper and I walk  the Huckleberry Trail- less than a half mile from Virginia Tech. For nearly a year now I have been writing while I walk.  I made it to the fourth line of my thought (by talking it into my phone-) when my writing was stopped by the Virginia Tech alert sirens. 
`
Two days of rain,
leaves this trail clean
Two days inside-
the whole of me leans into the joy of moving...

Forward-
toward unknown endings.

I approach the cornered fork.
where once I saw a fox-

straight-
from pointed nose to muffled tail

straight -
as a bullet from a gun.

I approach the cornered fork

Slamming into a sound of a mind numbing alert.
Someone lays dying-
The wailing of sirens beneath the words
“This is not a test... seek shelter now.”

Down the hill, a quarter mile from Virginia Tech.
A half a mile from home.


 


A postscript - this evening they released the name of the Virginia Tech Police officer who was shot and killed.
Slain Officer Identified

God bless the family of  Deriek W. Crouse.


`

Let's see ...



T
hanks for being here.