STEPPING ON SHORE....

The words in this blog's title have been in-and-out of my heart lately. One reminder is an oil painting hanging above my guest-room bed, featuring a seascape at either dawn or sunset. From my perspective of living on the West Coast, I think “sunset” (over the Pacific) is correct. But each time I see it, the lyrics of a contemporary song about heaven come to mind—the one that urges us to think about stepping ashore somewhere, and finding it heaven. Having said those “earthly goodbyes” to dear loved ones—parents, in-laws, spouse, other much-loved people—the song is especially poignant to me.

So how did I acquire such a lovely painting? Well, it was a gift, a very unexpected one, from a block-away neighbor with artistic talent who also had a studio to teach others in her home. Now, she is “on her way “Home,” her skills eroded by the inevitable decline of body and brain, living out her last days in a care home.

But memories remain, and some of them are quite fun. When that neighbor and her husband went away on vacation, they looked around and decided my kids were the best candidates for “house-watching.” So the very important key to their lovely home came to us, along with instructions of how to test the in-ground pool's water and add chlorine. She wanted the water “stirred up” once in a while, which was a euphemism for “go ahead and swim, just make sure an adult is there with kids.” My then-early-teen kids were thrilled.

Did I mention our duties also included kitty-cat care, twice a day? My son, the ultimate cat-lover, assigned himself that task, gaining the affection of their fluffy alley cat, named “Ninety-nine” for getting to be so old. She didn't just want to be petted. When my son pulled off his tee-shirt to “stir up the pool waters,” the cat was soon thoroughly sniffing his shirt with all its wonderful youthful perspiration odors. Not just sniffing. Rolling herself all over it with somewhat warped enthusiasm. It was a good, fun memory.

Someone else now lives in that house. The former owners are in a care facility, a safe place for those whose minds and bodies are fading. Soon to step on the “spiritual shore” of Heaven. Thus I recall the music and lyrics to a 50-year-old hymn named “Finally Home,” which begins, “when engulfed by the terror of tempestuous sea.” Don Wyrtzen and L.E. Singer are credited as the musician and poet for the song, copyrighted in 1971. Here is one online video of its performance: Bing Videos

What will happen to this lovely, framed gift when I've stepped on that “shore”? I don't know. I'm just grateful that for many years, it's provided a quiet reminder that there's something more when we “sleep in death.” And how ironic, that its place of honor is above....a bed.