God Be Good to Him….In Memory of Rick Schneider
In the Irish language, everything is a blessing. One of the things we heard many times when someone was telling a story was the mention of a name followed by “God be good to’m”
After a few hearings I realized this was meant to indicate that the person had passed over to the other side, which, in western Ireland, is just as real and present as the hand in front of your face. It was such a comfort to spend the days leading up to the first anniversary of my Dad’s transition in a place where people feel the ancestors in the land, the music and the language. The Otherworld is an ever present part of the landscape. As Jung said,“bidden or not bidden, God is present.” And as John O’Donohue might have added, so are the dead.
In his book Anam Cara, O’Donohue says that the dead are our closest companions, that they know us better even than we know ourselves.
Those you love are never truly gone. They are not in some far off place, but as close as the nearest thought or the breath that carries your prayer to other realms. The Otherworld is right in front of you. Put out your hands, open your heart and feel the energy of your ancestors and beloved dead. They are with you, as I know my father is with me.
As I type this I am listening to an ancient Irish keening song. The refrain is “M’ochon ‘s m’ochon o.”
There is no real Engish translation; it is the sound a grieving soul…a sort of anguished, “woe is me.” And yet there is a beauty and comfort in the tender point of loss, a reminder that we have loved and continue to love, and that the separation we feel is but an illusion.
Listening to Eoin and Moley sing that song high in The Burren while in Ireland, I put a stone on an ancient cairn in honor of my Dad. And I felt him there with me.
During our trip, David Whyte asked us to consider, in relation to those we have lost in this life, what we can now carry on for them. What bright light did they shine in this world that we can pick up and continue?
I vow to honor my Dad’s contribution to my life and to the world by being a voice of hope and optimism, by looking for ways to make people laugh, by being true to my values, by using my gifts to serve. And most of all, by enjoying life.
Here is a poem I wrote this week for my Dad. Enjoy.
God be Good to Him
You were known as a master of
embellishment.
And so in those years when
you played the bon vivant,
people would smile when
you said that THIS was the BEST
steak you’d ever eaten,
and that the music was the best
you’d ever heard
or that the island you’d traveled
to on this year’s cruise was
the most beautiful you’d ever
seen.
Yearly at Christmas,
the present you’d acquired
for your beloved was
the best you’d ever given
and you couldn’t wait
for her to unwrap it and
share your delight.
Each meal, each encounter, each
day was better than the last.
And they all thought
you weren’t being serious
because how could every
experience be the best?
But I knew you later
when the dancing
and touring
and traveling
and gifting
had been taken away.
When you decided to become
the bon vivant
of amputees
and the troubadour
of dialysis
and still you said
that each day
was the best
and I knew that you meant it
because the best
had nothing to do
with anything
but who you decided
to be.
And you were
the best
at knowing
what this life
was really for.
I miss you.
God be Good to you, Dad.
Grab your life with both hands, my friends. This time of being in the body is so transient, precious and mightily beautiful.
What do you get when you take a body with the soul of a poet, the mind of a scholar and the heart of a healer…and turn her into a trial lawyer? Existential crisis, and more graduate school! Throw in a husband, a background in psychotherapy and two extraordinary children and you get Kimberly Schneider, M.Ed., J.D., LPC. Kimberly touches groups large and small with her engaging style and on the spot coaching in life and business. Her Cornucopia Method of Manifestation teaches people how to have more of what they want and less of what they don’t in 5 easy steps. Kimberly awakens entrepreneurs and other extraordinary individuals to the power of conscious manifestation and the joy of meaningful work. Request Kimberly’s FREE Conscious Life Creation e-course and find out “Why the Secret Isn’t Working and what you can do about it” at www.TheManifestationMaven.com or check out her free 5 Day Audio Course at www.TheFiveManifestationSecrets.com.
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