Clarity support.

[candid]

I've decided to take the liberty of posting some saddening news. Hilary's Father has unexpectedly passed over late last week. I'm sure she would appreciate your moral support and prayers (however you pray them) for her strength and clarity during this distressing time.

My own Father has also passed on just a few hours before Hilary heard news of her loss. My Dad was an older man and his death was expected. Hilary's news came as a total surprise.

May we all be clear and strong for one another.

Candid

[bfireman]

My thoughts and prayers out to both of you and your families...

Here is a poem I hope will help lift your spirits...

For Aley, Baldwin, Floyd, and Mayfield (by Maya Angelou)


~When great trees fall
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
limber after safety.

~When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil in silence
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

~When great souls die
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly,
Our eyes briefly,
See with hurtful clarity.
Our memory , suddenly, sharpened,
Examines
Gnaws on kind words unsaid,
Promised walks
Never taken.

~Great souls die and
our reality, bound
to them, takes leave of us.
Our souls dependent upon their
Nurture,
Now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
Radiance
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to their unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

~And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, Restored, never
to be the same, whispers to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
Better. For they existed.

Peace and Love - Brian

[heylise]

Dear Hilary,
My thoughts and prayers and love are with you and all the people around you, especially your mother.
LiSe

Candid,
To you too I send my thoughts and prayers and love. I met your father in a beautiful dream, he (or a wise voice) said ?losing fear of death is the entrance to the first of the 7 heavens?.
LiSe

[candid]

Thank you, LiSe and Brian for your warm thoughts, prayers and love during this time. Very interesting about the voice in your dream, LiSe. My Dad is what would be called a common hard working man who had little to say about philosophical or spiritual matters. But the comment to you is something he might say. His expression on the matter was, we don't live here - we're just passing through. He showed no sign of fear of dying at all. It also makes sense that he would refer to the first of 7 heavens because his one wish during his last days was to be united with his mother, father, brother and sisters, which I believe he now is, and this is the first heaven. Its probably the only heaven he'll know during this time around and that's fine.

I too had a dream of him the morning after he died. He and I were bickering as to whether he had hair. *chuckles* He hugged me close and said, "but I do have hair now!" I then noticed his black shiny hair with just a touch of gray by his temples. That would put him at about 40 - 45 years old - his prime. He was feisty and happy; obviously a joy for me to witness.

Thanks again!
Candid

[willow]

Tears and chills. My love and good wishes to you both, Candid and Hilary.

[binz]

I'm crap at saying the 'right' thing in these situations, but am thinking of you both and all involved at this time. Sending you warmth and hugs from my spirit in this cold time.

Binz.
-------------------------------------

Things flourish and grow,
and then return to their source.

To return to the source is to know perfect peace.

[mick]

Candid,

I'm so sorry to hear about your father's death and the sudden death of Hilary's father.

What a shock!

I hope that the love and respect of the Clarity community can be a help for you now.

"I then noticed his black shiny hair with just a touch of gray by his temples. That would put him at about 40 - 45 years old - his prime. He was feisty and happy; obviously a joy for me to witness."

How lovely! You know, some people say that in heaven, you can choose whatever age you want to be.

Best wishes,

Mick

[lindsay]

Dear Hilary,

My heart ached when I read Candid?s announcement of your father?s unexpected death. Words seem so inadequate at times like these, but with this email I send all my heartfelt sympathy and love to you and your family.

Of course I never met your father, but you once wrote he was a devoted teacher ? and I believe there is no nobler work a man can do than help others discover the riches of this beautiful world. Your father will live forever in the treasure-house of your family?s memories, but he also lives on in the hearts and minds of all the grateful students he nurtured through the years.

Many of us here at Clarity have been moved by the warmth, intelligence, and compassion you have shown us in these pages. During the sad days ahead I know you will draw on these same deep personal resources so many of us have come to respect and admire. You know you have my sympathy and friendship, and I would be grateful to help in any way I can.

My heart and thoughts are with you.

Lindsay

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Dear Candid,

How sad I am to learn of the recent death of your father. Let me extend my heartfelt sympathy to you and your family. This loss must touch you very deeply as you face the days ahead without him.

As you say, your father may have been a plain and simple working man, but he must have had some outstanding qualities to produce such a remarkable son. In the end we do not admire our parents so much for their accomplishments and distinguished qualities as we love them for their gentle and fragile humanity, the same flickering light of love and hope we nurture so perilously within ourselves. We can only hope we do as well as they did in this life. This is hard to understand, because the mind is not involved, only the human heart, the heart of the species a thousand thousand generations old.

No one has done more than you to set the warm and friendly tone of Clarity. Your strength and wisdom have made this site a place of refuge and sharing for the rest of us. I believe you will miss your father more than you know, but when you feel lonely and blue, try to remember all the friends you have here who will feel honored to listen and maybe respond.

You are in my thoughts and even my halting prayers.

Lindsay

[candid]

Greetings and deep thanks for your thoughtful and warm expressions of the heart.

Lindsay, this quote nearly knocked me right off my chair: ?This is hard to understand, because the mind is not involved, only the human heart, the heart of the species a thousand thousand generations old.? Good Lord, how true!

I?ll venture to speak for Hilary as well as myself, offering my deepest gratitude for your support and encouragement during this time. Its not the first time I?ve been uplifted during trying times by y?all. 48 comes to mind. The well being lined, each one a stone and a contribution to the overall structure. The water ? a never ending source of spiritual life and truth.

Humbly,
Candid

[hilary]

Thank you so much, everyone. Knowing that you're thinking of us really makes a difference.

I thought you might like to know that Yi also had something to say on this, on the day before Dad died. I had the feeling I should be divining, and chose a fairly trivial subject about what I had planned for the following Tuesday (which wasn't, of course, going to happen). I received the ultimate in unchanging hexagrams: 1, the Creative. I knew it wasn't about my question, of course, but didn't realise what it was about until the following day.

The inspiration, the breath, the creative, the beginning, that which endures - unchanging. I've felt that running through me like a backbone over the past days.

With much thanks and love to everyone,

Hilary