Tag: Victor Hugo

Here She Comes

I’m sorry for the delayed post. It’s been a morning of distractions which is not ideal for a distractible person, such as myself. I’ve shared the following excerpt on the blog before, a poem most often attributed to Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea, but it is too poignant not to share again. I first read it when a friend sent it to me in a sympathy card after the loss of my beloved grandmother. I usually send it on in almost every sympathy card that I ever send because it has always brought me such comfort. Our son’s girlfriend just lost her beloved grandmother and so once again, I texted her this passage today:

“I am standing upon that foreshore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says “There! She’s gone!” “Gone where?” “Gone from my sight, that’s all.” She is just as large in mast and spar and hull as ever she was when she left my side; just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of her destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at that moment when someone at my side says “There! She’s gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout “Here she comes!” And that is dying.”

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

512. Have you ever carried a torch for someone?

Here She Comes

I have a passage from Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea that I include in every sympathy card that I ever send. (which by the time you are in middle age, is unfortunately too many to count). It was sent to me by a friend when my beloved grandmother died and it brought me so much comfort. I am so happy when I pass it on, and others remark of the comfort that it has brought to them. I was reminded of this passage, by a friend, this weekend, who lost both of her beloved parents many years ago. It really speaks of dying, but after leaving a loving, warm, reunion atmosphere with my dear friends and coming home to a loving family, who were so excited to see me and to hear my stories and to share their weekend experiences with me, I thought to myself that the passage really applies in life, too. How fortunate we are, that so many of us travel between loving groups of people as we journey through our experience of Life. It’s like we have comforting rest spots and safe harbors, in the arms of people who know us and love us and only want safe passage for us, as we move along our paths of purpose. Here is the passage and may it bring you comfort and realization that we are not alone in our journeys:

“I am standing upon that foreshore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says “There! She’s gone!” “Gone where?” “Gone from my sight, that’s all.” She is just as large in mast and spar and hull as ever she was when she left my side; just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of her destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at that moment when someone at my side says “There! She’s gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout “Here she comes!” And that is dying.”

And that is Life.