The Comfort of Friends

They that love beyond the World, cannot be separated by it.
A true friend unbosums freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably. Death cannot kill, what never dies.
Nor can Spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same Divine Principle; the Root and Record of their Friendship.
If Absence be not death, neither is theirs.
Death is but Crossing the World, as Friends do the Seas; They live in one another still.
For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is Omnipresent.
In this Divine Glass, they see Face to Face; and their Converse is Free, as well as Pure.
This is the Comfort of Friends, that though they may be said to Die, yet their Friendship and Society are, in the best Sense, ever present, because Immortal.

- William Penn

On Death

You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life? The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond; and like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring. Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honor. Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king? Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

The Prophet
Kahlil Gibran

Hurray for Doris!

Assembling here for celebration,
We offer words of admiration.
To Doris who does so many things,
It makes our head spin ‘round in rings!

She rises always before the sun,
Works out in the gym like it was fun!
Then flaps her flippers in lanes aquatic,
And trucks home to hoe her garden exotic!

She grows veggies and roses and trees that blossom,
Golly gee – her talents are really awesome!
So – one and all we join in a chorus –
Hurray! Hurray! Hurray! for Doris!

She rows her boat and catches fishes,
And digs the clams for chowder delicious!
She sews her swimsuits – so clever you see,
And we “ooo” and “aah” at her pottery!

But her very best attribute, none will deny,
Is the crab feast she gives the last of July!
We offer our undying gratitude,
For her sure-handed crab pot aptitude!

Again, hear our grateful, thankful chorus –
Hurray! Hurray! Hurray! for Doris!

July 28, 2000
Rowers