Persistence of love after life

Do we persist after or wiring stops to function and our gears cease to mesh?
Should the microscopic details surrounding our parting circumstances be grieved upon? Or, as time persistently marches on, should we love the impact and impressions a person has left on the lives around him. Of course, there is time for grief and inspection. Like a mighty boulder, cast in to a river, a turbulent, gaping hole is wrought and the water is projected in all directions. The river will eventually calm. Ripples from the disruption continue but the observer downstream cannot make sense of them amongst ripples made by the wind and the rain and soon signs of the disruption all but disappear. One cannot avoid thinking about the gaping whole in life and how it might project in the future. Life does not stop though. When curiosity defeats thought of self, we learn. When acts of preservation for others are not reflected, we rejoice in the deed and weep for the response. But the important thing is to love what was loved, cherish the values we admired in those lost and let those memories ripple through our lives and in to others.
There are those that dwell on changing the past, in the darkness to expiate mistakes. I don't know that all people have the same problem with death. People are not all alike. Would it be, that if I were truly a good person, that death would sometimes be a blessing? Verily, I say no. Death is like the rain; and the rain falls on both the good and the wicked.
So now, I shall go out and toil in the world. Expense reports, contracts, schedules, bugs. To some unknown end. With the other life forms, fraught with troubles, full of "sound and fury." When confronted with their passions and their human nature I often feel "ordinary, and not up to the task." But I know I love and I am loved by those that surround me.
Grant me the serenity to see some of the blessings already granted. It is no comfort that things are worse for so many other people. But it forces me to consider that the significant possessions in life are the ones who we know and love, and the opportunities that are given us to affirm that gift. Life and labor make so many competing demands, and time seems to be too much in short supply. If this is the fabric with which we must work, let us work diligently to weave in the strong threads of family and friendship so that it will last and be a blessing to ourselves, our children, and, in times to come, our children's children.


Nick, your calmness and kindness, your intelligence and curiosity, the love you gave to your friends and family, they will carry on and that is enough. Thank you.


"Success is to laugh often and much.
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children.
To gain the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends.
To appreciate beauty.
To find the best in others.
To leave the world a little bit better
whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition.
To know one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
That is to have succeeded."

-R.W.E.