Monday, September 02, 2013

... and it was morning and it was evening and it was a year.



It seems like it was yesterday and it seems like it was a lifetime ago.

Today as we mark the anniversary of the death of my wife, Louise Emerson Brooks, I am so deeply aware of holding in a kind of holy tension feelings of grief and gratitude; of pain and promise ... and of the profound power of hope and healing to continue to work in and through even the worst the world can do. Through cancer. Through fear and anxiety. Through loss and loneliness. Through death.

What I know more surely today than I knew a year ago today is that God IS in the roses and in the thorns. That the power working in us can absolutely do more than we can ask or imagine. And -- most importantly -- that love never dies.

In a little while I'll be heading to Santa Monica where Louise's BFF Julena will be having her annual Labor Day party. And we'll grill some burgers and drink some wine and talk about how great the Dodgers are doing and argue about what Obama should be doing (or not doing) in Syria -- (and maybe about whether Hillary will run in 2016!) And -- as I said to Julena yesterday -- where would we rather be than together making the kind of party Louise wouldn't have missed for the world?

That's really all I have to say today. Other than to thank absolutely everybody who has prayed for, reached out, supported and journeyed through this year with us -- Louise's family and friends.

Her memory continues to be blessed by all those whose "lives were closely linked" with hers -- and by your willingness to live out that great quote that she chose as her epitaph (because, being a producer, of COURSE she chose her own epitaph!): "Give all to love; obey thy heart."



2 comments:

JCF said...

{{{Susan, and all of Louise's loved ones}}}

And yes, your Dodgers are doing great. Admitted reluctantly...and furiously! [Maybe my Giants can only win it all in even-numbered years? ;-)]

All comforting memories to you and yours at this time. I know that Our Redeemer liveth...

uffda51 said...

A great photo of Louise. And beautiful flowers today in church.