"Abide With Me"

I really like this one. It's a bit of a tear jerker, I bet. If I can feel that now, and I don't know it well, it would be more so if you heard it sung at your grandmother's funeral. Besides: Abide with me. That's just a really beautiful phrase.

I've had people tell me that things that I said to them years ago really stuck in their heads, influenced their lives. I know that's true for me: certain phrases, or advice, or images really moving me, so it's always interesting that I've never been able to remember saying whatever bit of wisdom was the shining star for them. Was I channelling in that moment, or what? What is it about someone else's offhand bit of brilliance that is so brilliant? Is it just far enough, yet just near enough our own understanding to give us that boost into a broader horizon? Does it capture our fancy by a lucky turn of phrase, combined with a word order that's uncommon enough in our own lexicon to be memorable? Why do I still think of David whenever I use 'also' instead of 'too'? What about my brother's outstretched hand in that church service still holds the idea of commitment to me today? Why do I still remember Wayne (who I barely knew, really) saying, 'It's not a party til someone breaks out the dictionary'?

I don't know. This evening I feel more full of questions than answers, though not in an uncomfortable way. I've been, as my friend, Larry, would say, 'A blur to the naked eye'. No time to give my brother his (not) 'daily phone call'. Holding in my heart the truth that (as my Mom would say), 'If your only problems are money problems, you're in good company'. Feeling in so many ways, close to so very many people who I see and speak to way too little. But never fear, you're in more than my thoughts, you're in my habits of thinking; somehow very much, and very consciously, in my daily life.