My beloved mother would have been 86 on the 26th April. I visited her and my father's grave on Saturday to mark it and to celebrate the gift her life was and continues to be to me.  I am so sad. I sang her happy birthday and remembered her love, her beauty of soul. The grief has softened but lingers like a shadow. I love you, my precious one. xxx

I stood by your grave today

And said goodbye again

Yet still I felt you in my heart

In every trace of memory.

And I am glad that you are gone

Suffering and pain at and end.

We could not lift it from you 

It was never in our gift. 

In your life you gave us all 

A mother to the very end

The dearest heart, the kindest soul

Love like that can never die.

I stood by your grave today,

And could not find the tears

You are lost to me in body

But your spirit haunts me still.

"Love You"

My mother had a stroke in June of this year. I was sitting in my office preparing for my next client when the phone range. It was my sister-in-law who had been out shopping with Mum.

Her voice was filled with panic as she told me that Mum had suddenly collapsed and was being attended to by the Paramedics who were stabilising her before taking her to Hairmyres Accident and Emergency Department.

We were lucky. Mum survived and made a full recovery. At the age of 80, we get to keep our mother with us. I look around at all my friends and realise that I am one of the fortunate few who has both parents alive as I move towards my own 57th year.

I am also blessed in that I am secure in the knowing that I am loved by my parents and that they know how much I love them. I look around at friends and clients and the contrast in their own parental relationships makes me even more appreciative.

We can take our loved ones for granted. We can blind ourselves to the fact that one day death will separate us because we simply find it too painful to face.

Face it. I have. They are mortal and with aging, ailing parents, the time is drawing in. Don't dwell on the pain, dwell on making each moment count, on making positive memories that will warm your soul when their physical presence is no longer there.

Make your peace with your parents if there is dissension; let go of the past and be fully present with them as they are right now. You will not get the chance later, for there may be no later, only a life time of regret for words unspoken. Our parents are human; they are imperfect. Just like you and I, they grow and evolve. Look at them now and look at them through the eyes of compassion. Look at them through the eyes of love.

Whether I am face to face with my parents or on the telephone, my last words to them are always, "I love you". When they part from this life, I want those words to be their last memory of me and I want them to be my last gift to them.

Think about it and maybe if you still have time with your parents, you could try it too.

Love is the answer
to all questions.
Love is the flame
that lights the way
through deepest darkness.

Love illuminates
the faces of children
and we are all children,
children of the Light
the light that is Love.

Love shines from each soul,
the interconnected energy
of divine inspiration,
birthed from the light;
Love's children every one.

Heart Song

My heart song is like the deep resonating boom of a Tibetan gong, vibrating the peace and love that is my core, out into the world.

The vibrations grow as they ripple out like a stone dropped into the water of life.

They amplify, resonate, blend with other vibrations, until the sound roars in our ears, unmistakeable, authentic, the sound of the divine within each one of us.

My heart song says that love is the central core of the universe.

I exist within that core and its fire is my fire.

I burn with that love and its bright brilliant blazing flames warm and heal my world.

There is love and only love and that is everything.