The Story
February 22, 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you for receiving this message
(and in
whatever way you've chosen to receive it).
As many of you know, my grandmother passed recently. It all
happened
much sooner than expected just following Christmas holidays. As she lay
in her hospital bed, drifting in and out of a morphine induced coma, we
knew it wouldn't be long. My family gathered around her bed to honor
her and to bless her in departure. And she waited...
I choose to believe she waited to teach a final lesson - a lesson that
she offered throughout her life so often. A lesson that most
of us
live our lives ignoring...
I was anxious on the day that she died. After work I sat in a coffee
shop really uncertain about what I was doing there. Really uncertain
about my place in a coffee shop, in a city so far away from my family,
so far away from my dying grandmother. I knew there was
something I had
to do so I rushed home and did the first thing that came out
of me.
"I've gotta sing for her", I thought. She'd asked me to sing at
Christmas
but my shyness kept me from honoring her request -
I didn't want to
admit the inevitable - she was going to die soon.
And so, knowing
this like never before, I sang my soul's yearning.
Nervous, self
conscious, and rattled by the thought that she might pass too soon,
I
recorded the quickest version of myself playing guitar and singing "I
can see clearly now" onto my computer.
And then I called the hospital.
My mother answered.
"Is she still alive?", I asked with hesitation, almost
whispering.
"Yes, we're all here with her now." She replied.
"I've recorded a song for her, can you place the phone to her ear?"
I was sobbing by this point.....
"Oh, yes, yes, one second... Ok, it's by her ear..."
And I began...."Gramma, this is for you. We love
you...... Thank you. Thank you."
The song played, I sang, and my mother thanked me. My
grandmother's
breathing, previously erratic had calmed. I hung up -
relieved and at
peace. Thankful, I decided to walk the short distance from my
house
back to the corner coffee shop where I'd been earlier.
As I sat down to
enjoy a friend's company my cell phone rang, it was my father. His
voice stern, serious and supportive he asked,
"What, did you sing her?" I felt the inevitable in his voice.
"I can she clearly now. Why?"
"She's just passed........" he said quietly.
I began to sob in the coffee shop. Moments after I'd sung to
her, my grandmother had passed. Mere
moments
after honoring her request to share my talents and my voice, my words
and my love, she let go of her struggle to stay alive........
.....I was blown away.....
And I still am......
....
Her funeral was beautiful - her life well honored and this story shared
sufficiently - and even more so now that you've read it.
My grandmother taught many lessons but the greatest one for me has been
this:
In times of stress, doubt and anxiety, we can find peace in serving
others. By simply turning our attentions onto the
lives of other
people: their conditions, concerns, circumstances (favorable or not) we
reveal opportunities to act, to construct new meanings, to make
new
relationships, to heal old relationships, to discover creative
possibilities. We can find relief and personal
purpose in the act of
offering "that which is alive in us to give". Ultimately,
giving is receiving. For my grandmother,
waiting to die, "that" which I could give, was the gift of song and her
gift in return, for me, has
been the constant reminder of the power of our talents, of our words,
of our simple presence. And the gift of song.
And so, in this moment, what I have to offer you are these words, this
story, my sincerity, my reflections, my love and my
gratitude. Thank
you for being You however, wherever, whenever you are, have been and
will be. My life is a beautiful beautiful story and I'm so
happy to
have you as a part if it.
My hopes are that I have served you in
some way by sharing this message. If only at least
to tell you a
beautiful story about living and dying. From now, I'm choosing to
shine, and I hope that maybe this story will
encourage you to do the same.
As some of you know my current employment is finished at the end
of
March, and I'll be seeking to serve "as more of myself" in a variety of
capacities. Group facilitation, speaking, writing, youth empowerment
programming and celebrating spirit in general are just some of my
intentions. And most wonderfully, I'd like to admit
that all of this
message to you began as I sat this morning, meditating on the perceived
and anticipated looming stress that un-employment offers, until I
re-membered the lesson that serving others offers, and so often we been
told, but more often forgotten that quite simply: Giving is
Receiving.
Thank you for receiving that which has been in me to share.
I'm looking forward to sharing more and more with you as my story
unfolds.
In-Service,
At your service,
with Gratitude and Love,
Gregory Smythe
gasmythe@gmail.com
tel: 250.516.0012
-------------------------------------------------
P.S.
I've placed the original recording that I offered my grandmother on my
website here.
Don't
mind the couple off notes here and there - it's the best I could
do at the time considering the circumstances :-) I'm offering this in
encouragement that you might recognize some of your own greatness in
any effort you make to simply
express. Your expressions are so beautiful. Please share them
-
they can mean, quite literally life or passing for those you
love.
Simply sharing them is enough to be enough.
P.P.S. Fast forward to the weeks after my grandmothers'
passing. I
shared this story at a conference with Neale Donald Walsch and two
dozen members of the School for The New Spirituality
(www.schoolofthenewspirituality.com).
After telling it, a wonderful woman
named Carmen, at a table across from mine, came to hug me.
She
explained that following the passing of her own grandmother she was
visited in a dream, and in that dream her grandmother offered her a
song..... The song? "I can see clearly
now". Wow!!!
P.P.P.S I suspect there are many more stories to share
following this
one. Please do share your's. Thank You for being
You.
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