Dave Bateman

God bless. xxx

Birthdays Do Not End With Death

Birthdays do not end with death,
But last as long as love,
A maelstrom of memories
That grace and honor move.

And so we celebrate your day
By visiting your grave,
A place that you have left long since,
But is all that we have.

Dear spirit, come and join us here,
Your loved ones by your stone!
Come sweep across the barrier
To claim us as your own!

Happy birthday, dearest one!
Oh, happy, happy day!
Not even the most bitter night
Can take this joy away!

Copyright Nicholas Gordon

Mel Xxxxx (Family Friend)

Saturday midday

☜♡☞ The Wings That Fly Us Home ☜♡☞

There are many ways of being in this circle we call life
A wise man seeks an answer, burns his candle through the night
Is a jewel just a pebble that found a way to shine
Is a hero’s blood more righteous than a hobo’s sip of wine
☀
Did I speak to you one morning on some distant world away
Did you save me from an arrow, did you lay me in a grave
Were we brothers on a journey, did you teach me how to run
Were we broken by the waters, did I lie you in the sun
☀
I dreamed you were a prophet in a meadow
I dreamed I was a mountain in the wind
I dreamed you knelt and touched me with a flower
I awoke with this: a flower in my hand
☀
I know that love is seeing all the infinite in one
In the brotherhood of creatures; who the father, who the son
The vision of your goodness will sustain me through the cold
Take my hand now to remember when you find yourself alone
☀
And the spirit fills the darkness of the heavens
It fills the endless yearning of the soul
It lives within a star too far to dream of
It lives within each part and is the whole
☀
It’s the fire and the wings that fly us home
Fly us home, fly us home.

~ Words by Joe Henry, music by John Denver

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Mel Xxxxx (Family Friend)

2 weeks ago

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*✫* Christmas Secrets *✫*

Underneath a winter sky
a distant train sings out the miles.
So I imagine, it may be,
that every mile brings you to me.
A promise made may still come true,
so I am waiting here for you,
if you don’t come, what will I do?
Who shall I tell my secrets to?
*☾*
Christmas bells ring out their chimes,
I hear them echo through the miles,
and moonlight shines upon the road
and trembles on the fallen snow
I look into the midnight blue
So many stars I never knew.
If you don’t come, what will I do?
Who shall I tell my secrets to?
*☾*
I look into the midnight blue
So many stars I never knew.
If you don’t come, what will I do?
Who shall I tell my secrets to?

~ Sung by Enya, lyrics by Roma Ryan ~
Copyright Ⓒ2006 EMI

Mel Xxxxx (Family Friend)

December 29, 2011

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And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth,
"You owe me."
Look what happens with love like that.
It lights up the sky. ♥ڿڰۣಌ

~ Hafiz

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Love is not something that comes from another.
It is a state of being that comes from within.
The Love that is inside of you is without conditions or expectations.
It is not limited or restricted by time and space in any way.
Unlike physical Love this Love will never diminish or fade with time.
It is eternal and will not ever let you down.
I promise you that it will always be there to let the Light in
and guide you safely Home.
Love connects each of us to one another
and is the underlying energy behind all things.
Love literally is everything. ♥ڿڰۣಌ

~ Paul Adkins

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Mel Xxxxx (Family Friend)

December 22, 2011

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★ Gone to the Unseen ★

At last you have departed and gone to the Unseen.
What marvelous route did you take from this world?

Beating your wings and feathers,
you broke free from this cage.
Rising up to the sky
you attained the world of the soul.
You were a prized falcon trapped by an Old Woman.
Then you heard the drummer's call
and flew beyond space and time.
☆....☆....☆
As a lovesick nightingale, you flew among the owls.
Then came the scent of the rosegarden
and you flew off to meet the Rose.

The wine of this fleeting world
caused your head to ache.
Finally you joined the tavern of Eternity.
Like an arrow, you sped from the bow
and went straight for the bull's eye of bliss.
☆....☆....☆
This phantom world gave you false signs
But you turned from the illusion
and journeyed to the land of truth.

You are now the Sun -
what need have you for a crown?
You have vanished from this world -
what need have you to tie your robe?
☆....☆....☆
I've heard that you can barely see your soul.
But why look at all? -
yours is now the Soul of Souls!

O heart, what a wonderful bird you are.
Seeking divine heights,
Flapping your wings,
you smashed the pointed spears of your enemy.
☆....☆....☆
The flowers flee from Autumn, but not you -
You are the fearless rose
that grows amidst the freezing wind.

Pouring down like the rain of heaven
you fell upon the rooftop of this world.
Then you ran in every direction
and escaped through the drain spout…
☆....☆....☆
Now the words are over
and the pain they bring is gone.
Now you have gone to rest
in the arms of the Beloved.

~ Rumi

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Mel Xxxxx (Family Friend)

December 11, 2011

ჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓ

ღ LIFE is a series of little deaths out of which life always returns.
…~ Charles Feidelson, Jr.

ღ LOVE is the vital core of the soul, and of all you see, only love is infinite.
…~ Rumi

♥ ═ೋღ♥ ═ೋღ♥

ღ A Farewell ღ

FAREWELL, oh dream of mine!
I dare not stay;
The hour is come, and time
Will not delay:
Pleasant and dear to me
Wilt thou remain;
No future hour
Brings thee again.
❦
She stands, the Future dim,
And draws me on,
And shows me dearer joys—
But thou art gone!
Treasures and Hopes more fair,
Bears she for me,
And yet I linger,
Oh dream, with thee!
❦
Other and brighter days,
Perhaps she brings;
Deeper and holier songs,
Perchance she sings;
But thou and I, fair time,
We too must sever—
Oh dream of mine,
Farewell for ever!

~ Adelaide Anne Procter

ჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓჱܓ

Mel Xxxxx (Family Friend)

November 26, 2011

♥ڿڰۣಌ

The morning glory blooms but for an hour,
and yet it differs not at heart
From the giant pine
that lives for a thousand years.

~ Matsunaga Teitoku ♥

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ಌ The Bourne ಌ

Underneath the growing grass,
Underneath the living flowers,
Deeper than the sound of showers:
There we shall not count the hours
By the shadows as they pass.

Youth and health will be but vain,
Beauty reckoned of no worth:
There a very little girth
Can hold round what once the earth
Seemed too narrow to contain.

~ Christina Rossetti

♥ڿڰۣಌ

Mel Xxxxx (Family Friend)

November 13, 2011

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♥ O’er the glad waters of the dark blue sea,
♥ Our thoughts are boundless and our souls are free…

(Lord Byron)

ზზ*ზზ*ზზ*ზზ*ზზ

• ❤ • Sorrow • ❤ •

O thorn-crowned Sorrow, pitiless and stern,
I sit alone with broken heart, my head
Low bowed, keeping long vigil with my dead.
My soul, unutterably sad, doth yearn
Beyond relief in tears—they only burn
My aching eyelids to fall back unshed
Upon the throbbing brain like molten lead,
Making it frenzied. Shall I ever learn
To face you fearlessly, as by my door
You stand with haunting eyes and death-damp hair,
Through the night-watches, whispering solemnly,
“Behold, I am thy guest forevermore.”
It chills my soul to know that you are there.
Great God, have mercy on my misery!

(Katrina Trask)

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Mel Xxxxx (Family Friend)

October 24, 2011

•:*:• ☆ •:*: •:*:• ☆ •:*: •:*:• ☆ •:*: •:*:• ☆ •:*:•:*:• ☆ •:*: •

~ The Different Stars ✰...✰

I could never have come to the present without you
remember that
from whatever stage we may again
watch it appear

with its lines clear
pain
having gone from there

so that we may well wonder
looking back on us here
what tormented us
what great difficulty invisible
in a time that by then looks simple
and is irrevocable

pain having come from there
my love
I tend to think of division as the only evil
when perhaps it is merely my own

that unties
one day the veins
one the arteries
that prizes less
as it receives than as it loses
that breaks the compasses
cannot be led or followed
cannot choose what to carry
into grief

even
unbinds will unbind
unbinds our hands
pages of the same story

what is it
they say can turn even this into wisdom
and what is wisdom if it is not
now
in the loss that has not left this place

oh if we knew
if we knew what we needed
if we even knew
the stars would look to us to guide them.

~ W.S Merwin ✰...✰

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Mel Xxxxx (Family Friend)

October 16, 2011

*ღ..........….............*ღ*...........…............ღ*

♥ If We Never Meet Again ♥

(I will meet you on that beautiful shore)

Soon we'll come to the end of life's journey
And perhaps never meet anymore
Till we gather in heaven's bright city
Far away on that beautiful shore

If we never meet again this side of heaven
As we struggle through this world and its strife
There's another meeting place somewhere in heaven
By the side of the river of life

Where the charming roses bloom forever
And where separations come no more
If we never meet again this side of heaven
I will meet you on that beautiful shore

Oh they say we shall meet by the river
Where no storm clouds ever darken the sky
And they say we'll be happy in heaven
In the wonderful sweet by and by

If we never meet again...
(If we never meet again this side of heaven)
I will meet you on that beautiful shore
(Beautiful beautiful shore)

♥ Albert E. Brumley ♥

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Mel Xxxxx (Family Friend)

October 1, 2011