In Memory of Zannie Arnold Townsend

January 11,1911 - March 20, 2008

I'm posting this in memory of one of the most amazing woman I've ever had the privilege to know. At the age of 97, this woman selflessly raised six children and never knew anything but raising children and keeping house. She loved her family and was dedicated to them to the end. I'll never understand how she must have felt to have never driven a car, but she managed to survive, nonetheless. Her mind was as sharp as a tack and she was concerned to the very end with the state of our nation. Mrs. Townsend went home today to the healing arms of the creator of the universe. I'll never forget her!


THEN Almitra spoke, saying, We would ask now of Death.

And he said:

You would know the secret of death.

But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery
of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body
of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the
king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of
the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that
it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

-Khalil Gibran