Your message
Even when it’s very, very dark, there’s a light shining somewhere.
Here’s the full moon, shining on Dam Neck, Virginia, September 2013
“If you want to get your message across, shut up.” — Mardy Grothe
I don’t take this advice nearly as often as I ought to, but today, I get it. I schedule these posts about two weeks in advance, so I have no idea how I’ll be feeling when this post is published. But right now, as I am writing it, I am just treading water. Maybe my wonderful and funny and highly intelligent readers can help write this post for me. Got any sunny, happy or at least wise thoughts to share? Today, I am attempting to Defeat Despair by keeping my mouth shut!
Wish me luck.
This post was first published seven years ago today. How ironic that it should re-post on the fourth anniversary of Jeff’s death. Appropriate, I guess, because for all of my writing and talking, there are still no words to communicate the unsurpassed loss.
The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
- Tagged: courage, dark night of the soul, depression, faith, friends, help, hope, hopeless, quiet, silence, sorrow, support, survival
Defeat Despair 
Good morning, Julia!
I remember when my sister and I were little, my parents used to sing with us:
I see the moon
and the moon sees me
God bless the moon
and God bless me.
I just realized that the tune was the same as the beginning of a song the my great-grandma used to sing, from “merry old England” that goes:
Naughty Jack went out to play
In the meadow yesterday.
Mother told him not to go
By the Brook where the rushes grow.
But he did, and he tumbled in
And the wet got to his chin.
Now he has to stay in the bed
Such a cold is in his head!
Sneezing makes his face quite red.
Tisshum tisshum tisshum!
(Those were supposed to be sneezing sounds.)
I took that song as quite a serious lesson to listen to my mom, to stave off sickness! But really, what a pleasant way to receive that lesson – through a song! My great-grandma had eleven children, so I’m sure she did a lot of effective parenting.
Of course I have heard the moon version, but not the British version you shared. Actually quite a lot for a child to attend to, but if set to music, much easier to remember. Wow, eleven children! And no microwave or television or computer or air conditioning or disposable diapers or even washing machines, at least as we imagine them. We are total wimps in comparison to our grandparents and great-grandparents. I really believe that.
Then, to top it all, she made Cornish pasties for everyone every day!
No kidding, once they caught onto technology a bit, they would leave us in the dust.
Sending love & prayers for your hope to raise!
Thank you, Mary Ann!