Journal

Two boys were playing in the woods. They collected nuts - plenty enough for them both to play with when they came home. On their way home, they came to a church and decided to go to the top of the tower and share the nuts equal.

On their way up the stairs, one of the boys lost two nuts. They bounced down the steps, all the way to the bottom. The boys decided to get them later and continued to the top. They started: "One for me, one for you..."

One of the church servants heard the counting and ran for the priest. The servant and the priest heard loud and clear from the top of the tower: "One for me, and one for you... One for me, one for you..."

They agreed that it indeed had to be God and Satan counting souls. They started walking upwards. They stopped in horror as they suddenly heard: "And we'll get the two other nuts when we get downstairs..."

Life is one day perfect. The next day it is unfair and makes no sense at all. When someone young dies, it seems to make no sense at all. Still, we seem to grow on the experience of grief.

When we meet grief, it is as if God plants a new seed in us. No matter what the grief is, we will grow on it. It is as if when we bury a loved one, we plant a seed in God's meadow.

There is a time for everything - even for death. Most of us do assosciate strong emotions and a variation of emotions to the meeting with death. Despite that, I think all of us most of all want the opportunity to bid farewell and the opportunity to bring forth memories - to enrich the lives of the ones left behind - or to close a story.

Most of us think of a gravesite as something decorated with flowers to a stone as background. It takes time before a grave "settles" - or let's say before we see the result of the seed planted.

May God let the seed grow - slowly, safely and let us all care for it as gently as we can.

Don't forget to stop and smell the flowers