Three Sisters

Across the din of the living...

2009-01-27T17:24:00.001-04:00

I speak with you. When there were no words, I chose to write those of others. Miss you seems so trite. I do miss hours of coffee talk but mostly I simply miss you.

Yellow

2008-09-16T12:57:00.001-03:00

Yellow is a bright six-legged bug
and the color of teeth after too much coffee.
Yellow is my disposition
and the sun upon tulips.
Yellow is the movie Old Yeller which made me cry
and the color of banana pudding.
Yellow is my favorite pullover sweater
and the gumball that rolled around and down the track.
Yellow is a croquet ball on a balmy Florida evening
and the color of our Volkswagon.
Yellow is the sunflowers she loved
and the color of the lemonade I made for her
memorial service.

2008-02-21T11:54:00.000-04:00

She is your mirror, shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best, and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark. She is your teacher, your defense attorney, your personal press agent, even your shrink. Some days, she's the reason you wish you were an only child.

Barbara Alpert

A Clear Midnight

2007-12-02T11:37:00.000-04:00

This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson
done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the
themes thou lovest best,
Night, sleep, death and the stars.

Walt Whitman

It's all I have to bring today

2007-12-02T11:24:00.000-04:00

It's all I have to bring today –
This, and my heart beside –
This, and my heart, and all the fields –
And all the meadows wide –
Be sure you count –
should I forget
Some one the sum could tell –
This, and my heart, and all the Bees
Which in the Clover dwell.

Emily Dickenson

2007-11-13T11:45:00.000-04:00

"You can't think how I depend on you, and when you're not there the color goes out of my life."

-- Victoria Woolf, to her sister

Drops of Jupiter

2007-08-16T07:43:00.000-03:00

Now that she’s back in the atmosphere
With drops of jupiter in her hair, hey, hey
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there’s time to change, hey, hey
Since the return from her stay on the moon
She listens like spring and she talks like june, hey, hey

Tell me did you sail across the sun
Did you make it to the milky way
to see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated
Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star
One without a permanent scar
And did you miss me while you were
looking at yourself out there

Now that she’s back from that soul vacation
Tracing her way through the constellation, hey, hey
She checks out mozart while she does tae-bo
Reminds me that there’s time to grow, hey, hey
Now that she’s back in the atmosphere
I’m afraid that she might think of me as plain ol’ jane
Told a story about a man who is too afraid to fly so he never did land

Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
And head back to the milky way
And tell me, did venus blow your mind
Was it everything you wanted to find
And did you miss me while you were
looking for yourself out there

Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
Your best friend always sticking up for you
even when I know you’re wrong
Can you imagine no first dance,
freeze dried romance five-hour phone conversation
The best soy latte that you ever had . . . and me

Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
And head back toward the milky way

Lyrics: Train

April Come She Will

2007-07-07T00:20:00.000-03:00

April come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain
May she will stay
Resting in my arms again
June she'll change her tune
In restless walks she'll prowl the night
July she will fly
And give no warning to her flight
August die she must
The autumn winds blow chilly and cold
September I remember
A love once new has now grown old

Simon & Garfunkel
lyrics

2007-06-23T01:05:00.001-03:00

Now fades the last long streak of snow,
Now burgeons every maze of quick
About the flowering sqares, and thick
By ashen roots the violets blow.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Remember me when I am gone away

2007-06-23T01:01:00.000-03:00

Remember me when I am gone away.
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand.
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me: you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had.
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than you should remember and be sad.
~ Christina Rossetti

2007-06-23T00:58:00.000-03:00

"Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy."
~ Eskimo Legend

Star Gazer

2007-06-23T00:53:00.000-03:00

One cold and solemn winter night,
I paused to view a wondrous star;
A brilliant, luminescent light,
That spoke of heaven from afar.

It hung against the ebon sky,
And as I turned to solitude;
It drew me nigh, with twinkle high,
Then chose to lift my attitude.

For as I stilled to view God's art,
The star at once began to play;
Then merrily, I saw it arc,
To race across the Milky Way.

Encircled by the atmosphere,
The star then paused to give a wink,
And vowed in time to reappear,
But then was gone within a blink.

I sighed, amazed by heaven's boon,
And caught a vision through the haze,
There peeking from behind the moon,
A twinkling light, my star's sweet gaze.

Sherry Pedersen-Thrasher

In one of the stars, I shall be living.
In one of them, I shall be laughing.
And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing when you look at the sky at night.
~ The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

2007-06-05T14:20:00.001-03:00

"God gave us memories that we might have roses in December."
~ Courage (1922) J.M. Barrie

Ah, Sunflower!

2007-06-05T14:15:00.000-03:00

Ah! sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller’s journey is done;
Where the youth pined away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves and aspire;
Where my sunflower wishes to go.

William Blake (1757-1827)

With Rue My Heart is Laden

2007-06-05T14:06:00.000-03:00

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.
By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.

A.E. Housman (1859-1936)

Jimmy

2007-06-04T21:38:00.000-03:00

It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea.
~Dylan Thomas

"I am sworn brother, sweet,
To grim necessity, and he and I
Will keep a league till death."
~William Shakespeare

"God has blessed me with many things in you, my only brother. "
Sherry Pedersen-Thrasher

How do I love thee?

2007-06-04T21:33:00.000-03:00

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

--Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Sherry, Kimberly & Leigh Ann

2007-06-04T20:53:00.001-03:00

"We are sisters. We will always be sisters. Our differences may never go away, but neither, for me, will our song."

Elizabeth Fishel

Roebuck 1974

2007-06-04T20:21:00.000-03:00

Sherry age eleven in 5th grade and smiling. Leigh Ann would have been in fourth grade, Kim in second and Jimmy just starting school during this time.

Summer in Roebuck

2007-06-04T20:10:00.000-03:00

Leigh Ann, Kim & Jimmy
behind our house in Roebuck, Alabama.

Kiss Buttterfly Wings

2007-06-04T14:41:00.000-03:00

Kiss butterfly wings as you pass
Into the sphere beyond
My wildest dreams and
Beyond all imagination.
Err not to glance back
Realizing what you have forsaken,
Lest you doubt
Your journey through the stars.

Joyous hordes will welcome you.
Oblivion, like anesthesia,
Your home on earth will erase. But,
Come again to us,
Early in the morning as dreams awaken

Something in the air that
Melts into the dawn.
Only do forget
The pain that is ours.
Heavens claim you as their own,
Even as you deny time and love and earth that confined you.
Remember, we do not forget
Something as pure and golden as you.

Days will pass for us,
And some say the time that confined you,
Will ease the sorrow that we feel.
Still, the choice was ours.
Only love extends our hearts,
Not knowing quite the risk we always take.

Joyce Green Sells
March 14, 2006

Acrostic poem written by our mother in memory of Kim.

2007-06-04T09:06:00.000-03:00

"An older sister is a friend and defender, a listener, conspirator, a counselor and a sharer of delights - and sorrows too."
-- Pam Brown

Nellie's Garden

2007-06-03T22:42:00.000-03:00

If I could plant a flower dear,
for every thought that draws you near,
inside my garden you would find
endearments fertile in my mind.

I'd gather up the summer phlox
and whisper soft forget-me-nots,
all sweetheart roses sown true blue
along my garden path for two.

Tulips would smile each sunny day
and gently lift our cares away
to offer sprigs of sweetest thyme
when penned in notes of floral rhyme.

The coralbells would cast their spell
upon our thoughts and pray, "be well."
I'd clip away each bleeding-heart
and toss it in my garden cart.

Sherry Pedersen-Thrasher

2007-06-03T22:36:00.000-03:00

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden. -- Claudia Ghandi

Third Pastoral

2007-06-02T11:14:00.000-03:00

Take off your shoes where the light
thins out into flocks chasing pollen
mist a ways past the edge of the lake.

It will be full of dandelion billows
this time of year, or so I was told.

I heard there were picket-fences here
once; crows still keep watch, perched
like a shadow almost there,

hardly making a sound. You see train tracks
trail off every mile or so, turn around
to ask if there were ever houses here

where bleached branches are buried
in sod and the earth suddenly turns
tar-black on itself. With thistles stuck

to your dress, you walk a ways apart
and I tell you I saw a lake of flowers
here: the wind came and it was gone.

Aleksy Tarasenko-Struc

2007-06-02T09:33:00.001-03:00

It is at the edge of a petal that love waits.

- William Carlos Williams

Graduation Day

2007-06-01T02:04:00.000-03:00

Sherry leaving home to attend her highschool graduation in Raleigh, North Carolina on June 2, 1981.

"What is past is prologue." -- William Shakespeare

Leigh Ann & Mom

2007-06-01T01:51:00.001-03:00

"Like mother, like daughter."
Proverb quote

Kim & Vicky

2007-06-01T01:42:00.000-03:00

“A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost.”
Marion C. Garretty

Pink and White

2007-05-31T13:14:00.000-03:00

Peonies are the only flower I care for
and when I saw them from the window
yesterday, tumbled and heavy along a fence, fully exploded,
nodding at the ground, hanging their heads but not
yet spoiled,I remembered
a summer (maybe seven years
ago or was it ten?) I wasn't sure
our love would come again,and
here I am, almost

kissing the grass like that,
bursting and rich, cracked
all over like broken cake,
makes you cry but still sweet.

Deborah Garrison
Second Child

When We Two Parted

2007-05-30T20:34:00.000-03:00

When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever the years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder, thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning
Sunk, chill on my brow,
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame;
I hear thy name spoken,
And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o'er me...
Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,
Who knew thee too well..
Long, long shall I rue thee,
Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met
In silence I grieve
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears.

Lord Byron (1778-1824)

2007-05-30T19:45:00.001-03:00

The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected.
~Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

These Days

2007-05-30T14:02:00.000-03:00

Well I've been out walking
I don't do that much talking these days
These days--
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
For you
And all the times I had the chance to

And I had a lover
It's so hard to risk another these days
These days--
Now if I seem to be afraid
To live the life I
have made in song
Well it's just that I've been losing for so long

I'll keep on moving
Things are bound to be improving these days
One of these days--
These days
I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them.

Artist: Jackson Browne
Lyrics

Carolina Girls

2007-05-30T08:10:00.000-03:00

This photo was taken while I was in high school. Kim and I had moved to North Carolina with Mom and our new stepfather, Hack, a few years before. Leigh Ann was living in Homewood with our Aunt Roisale. Our little brother, Jimmy, was in Panama City, Florida with Dad. This carolina blue volkswagon belonged to my high school boyfriend.

Roebuck, Alabama

2007-05-30T02:09:00.000-03:00

Grandma Ida Smothers from Carbon Hill, Alabama. My father, Jerry, was her youngest son. She was a teriffic cook and I recall that she spent hours doing so. We spent many weekends at her house along with my father's siblings and their children. This photo was taken behind our house in Roebuck and I remember roses, gardenia, apple and peach trees in the yard. The last time I went to Birmingham, we went to visit this house only to find that it had been destroyed by arson.

"A garden of Love grows in a Grandmother's heart."-- Unknown

Anniston, Alabama

2007-05-30T01:55:00.000-03:00

Grandma Shryock and I sitting in front of her house in Anniston. This is my first recolletion of Halloween and I must have been around four years old. I did not wear a costume but still remember knocking on doors and having a nice lady ask me " what do you say?" and my reply "trick or treat." She then placed a chocolate candy in my pumpkin. This is a favorite memory.

"Grandmas hold our tiny hands for just a little while... but our hearts forever."-- Unknown

Birmingham, Alabama

2007-05-30T01:09:00.000-03:00

Our brothers and sisters are there with us from the dawn of our personal stories to the inevitable dusk.
~Susan Scarf Merrell

Leigh Ann, Kimberly, Sherry and our little brother Jimmy at our Aunt Roisale's house in Homewood Alabama. This was our old station wagon and we made many trips to our Aunt's where we spent time with our cousins David, Greta, Richard and Rodney. Leigh, Kim, Jimmy and I all volleyed to secure our favorite spot in the rear facing back seat where we would keep count of and name gas stations to pass the time. Our Grandma Ida Smothers lived in this house and she was the most selfless woman that I have known. I fondly remember her scratch made biscuits. I'd take butter and mix it with grape jelly and slather it in a piping hot biscuit. Grandma taught us many things. She is buried in Elmwood Cemetary beside my father and cousin Greta. Kim is also in Elmwood next to our great-grandparents Chandler and our maternal Grandma Shryock.

Remembrance

2007-05-29T09:54:00.000-03:00

COLD in the earth -- and the deep snow piled above thee,
Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave !
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,
Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave ?
Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer
hoverOver the mountains, on that northern shore,
Resting their wings where heath and fern-leaves cover
Thy noble heart for ever, ever more ?
Cold in the earth -- and fifteen wild Decembers
From those brown hills, have melted into spring :
Faithful, indeed, is the spirit that remembers
After such years of change and suffering !
Sweet Love of youth, forgive, if I forget thee,
While the world's tide is bearing me along ;
Other desires and other hopes beset me,
Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee wrong !
No later light has lightened up my heaven,
No second morn has ever shone for me ;
All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given,
All my life's bliss is in the grave with thee.
But when the days of golden dreams had perished,
And even Despair was powerless to destroy,
Then did I learn how existence could be cherished,
Strengthened, and fed, without the aid of joy.
Then did I check the tears of useless passion --
Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine ;
Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten
Down to that tomb already more than mine.
And, even yet, I dare not let it languish,
Dare not indulge in memory's rapturous pain ;
Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
How could I seek the empty world again ?

Emily Brontë

2007-05-29T09:42:00.000-03:00

"For there is no friend like a sister, in calm or stormy weather, to cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one if one goes astray, to lift one if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands."

Christina G. Rossetti
English Poet 1830-1894

2007-05-28T08:04:00.000-03:00

Bless you, my darling, and remember you are always in the heart - oh, tucked so close there is no chance of escape - of your sister. ~Katherine Mansfield

A Reminiscence

2007-05-27T09:19:00.000-03:00

YES, thou art gone! and never more
Thy sunny smile shall gladden me;
But I may pass the old church door,
And pace the floor that covers thee.
May stand upon the cold, damp stone,
And think that, frozen, lies below
The lightest heart that I have known,
The kindest I shall ever know.
Yet, though I cannot see thee more,
'Tis still a comfort to have seen;
And though thy transient life is o'er,
'Tis sweet to think that thou hast been;
To think a soul so near divine,
Within a form so angel fair,
United to a heart like thine,
Has gladdened once our humble sphere.

Anne Brontë

A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life. ~Isadora James

Annabel Lee

2007-05-25T23:35:00.000-03:00

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

-The End-

Edgar Allen Poe-
1849

"For when three sisters love each other with such sincere affection, the one does not experience sorrow, pain, or affliction of any kind, but the other's heart wishes to relieve, and vibrates in tenderness... like a well-organized musical instrument." ~ Elizabeth Shaw ~

She Is The Spring

2007-05-25T23:09:00.000-03:00

The day ascended coldly, laced with frost,
And soon a threadbare dawn showed what was lost
Upon that morning, shrouded in the haze
Of no tomorrows, only yesterdays.
But who may question why a single life—
A loving mother, daughter, sister, wife—
Has reached conclusion, like a season’s end?
“Too soon!” we cry, but as horizons bend
We see the heart of God, and light’s rebirth,
Unfold in color on a waiting earth,
Postponing winter for the brief displays
Of her effect on us, like April days—
Strawberry hair and alabaster skin
Exuding freshness, and a soul within
That beamed unfailingly through vivid eyes
Of brilliant blue, recalling spotless skies.
The sun will part those clouds in time, my friends,
For Spring awaits us all, as Winter ends.

David Nelson Bradsher
February 17, 2006

Written in memory of:
Kimberly Joyce Smothers Dawson
November 16, 1966- February 13, 2006

"How do people make it through life without a sister?"Sara Corpening

Cento: Sherry Thrasher

2007-05-25T00:24:00.000-03:00

[I don't know if lines lifted from correspondence qualify, but I find poetry in letters received from sherry, and she's given me her permission to post these here.]

“I'm up to my elbows in paint and life.
I'm not good at dealing with death.
I'd never go to another ‘viewing’
but people don't understand.

I'm diligently working on my sister's house.
My . . . brother-in-law made a huge mess of things.
It is disturbing to see.
Then, I step outside and look at the sweetheart roses my sister rooted now in full bloom or the moon flower on the vine.
I see her everywhere and was thinking, today, that one day we will move forward. I suppose we are.

Summer is almost here which translates to kids underfoot again.”
A second bloom of the sweethearts my sister rooted. Yes, I suppose we are.

[the end lines, outside the quotes, are my only additions to Sherry's words from three separate PM's this date.] Lynn Doiron of Emerging Poets.

Up your logic

2007-05-25T00:21:00.000-03:00

I'm choking on each word held back
So speak your mind-
Why give me slack?
Forgive me but I'll think I'll vent
I've had enough
My patience spent-
Logical? Yeah, right!
You're shades of grey

I'm black and white

Sherry Pedersen-Thrasher

These days

2007-05-25T00:19:00.000-03:00

she sleeps,
frozen,
in Elmwood.

My dry mood,
hot,
as boiling sugar.

Pain breaks-
my heart aches.
Eternal regret,
not doing more ridges
doing less.

Echoes linger,
on Yew Circle--
Click, click,
bang.

Soaring

2007-05-25T00:17:00.000-03:00

Kim

Sister

Life long friend

Loved to the end

Shed shades of grey

to fly with tie-died wings

She was

2007-05-25T00:14:00.000-03:00

mini-bikes and butterflies,
cloudy days past starry skies,
coffee talk and herbal tea,
the yin who knew the yang of me.

My sister spoke of UFO's,
and dressed in vintage tie-dyed clothes.
Her alias was "coupon queen",
a hippie girl in faded jeans.

She was unique, without a doubt,
and we survived our in and outs,
but me and "daughter (number) three,"
enjoyed a common history

of Birmingham and Lincoln logs;
we rummaged creeks for pollywog's.
In kiddie pools, beneath the stars,
we'd float and drift on dreams afar

of bathing suits and halter tops;
from high dive boards we'd belly flop,
then giggle racing 'cross the sand
and climb the stairs to dive again.

Shared Barbie clothes and paper dolls,
bright crayon books and soccer balls,
filled makeup bags and curling wands,
all homage to a sister's bond

which celebrates two lives entwined,
a vow to love, transcending time.
Now happy tears are all I cry,
for sisters never say goodbye.

Sherry Pedersen-Thrasher

"A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost." Marion C. Garretty

S.O.S. at 1300 Saint Mary's Street

2007-05-25T00:09:00.001-03:00

Inside these walls
I've found the
place where my tears
can freely fall.

I palpate pain,
anger, regret, grief--
and unanswered
questions of blame.

Here they speak of
fathers, brothers,
husbands, lovers,
a young mother's only child,
and I speak of my beautiful sister
and the way she died.
Here, I learn to live again.

I know life
will never be the same
since my induction into a club
I never chose
to be a member of-

Survivors of Suicide.

2007-05-25T00:04:00.001-03:00

Pink Roses of Remembrance

I am missing you today.
Alone in silence,
I walk beneath the darkened sky,
wondering why
you chose to let go
of life.

If only I could visit your grave-
to spend time working soil,
planting seedlings,
planting a rainbow of color
to cover you.

I’d plant a garden
sown deep in fertile ground-
growing flowers in every hue;
sweetheart roses
in yellow, purple, and red,
pink roses, like the ones
you grew-

under the window of the room
where you held the gun,
that shot to pierce the morning sky.

Pink roses lay dormant on that tragic day,
roses that met you in nature’s deepest sleep.
I’d plant you a garden, blooming
in every shade of blue.

But now, you, taken far, far away,
taken to a place that I cannot touch
with kind words or deeds.

Buried in a place I cannot touch
by the planting of seed
sown true by my own two hands,
sown to the memory of you,
by the planting of love’s still
fertile seed.

Sherry Pedersen-Thrasher

"Like branches on a tree we grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one. Each of our lives will always be a special part of the other."Author Unknown

Lunch with Christian

2007-05-25T00:03:00.001-03:00

I promised to join him once each week for lunch.He'd rather have a sandwich made by me than to have a Chic-Fil-A.I am after all his Aunt, the chef. A sandwich made especially for him is a very big deal in his nine-year-old mind. He introduces me as the "cupcake lady" to one of his little friends.At twelve-twenty, I follow him to the cafeteria line where we wait for chocolate milk and tater-tots.I notice that he gets enough to share. Today he wears an orange shirt that is much too large. Oddly, the holes on both shoulders sadden me and I think that he deserves so much more, that she deserved so much more.I vow to throw out that old shirt first chance I get.He smiles with the same sapphire eyes that his mother had.In my mind I silently vow to do my best by her some way, somehow.Perhaps I am overly sensitive right now. I am noticing the little things. Are his shoes tied? What are the thoughts running through his little mind?How can I offer comfort in this tragic time? My thoughts race to lemonade, chess and checker games.To puppy kisses and heart-felt good boy wishes.I am saddened that his Mother died and I hate the fact that she chose her tragic death by suicide. I am broken by the burdens that are left behind.Burdens too heavy for this little boy to carry at the age of nine.Still I find the strength to meet him, to stand there at his side. I stand there in her place, in this cafeteria line.

Journey

2007-05-25T00:00:00.002-03:00

I find I am a tiny ship
in motion on an endless sea,
while riding waves that rise and dip
as constant currents carry me.

Upon the tide of circumstance
I seek a sky of ceaseless blue,
searching the stars in night’s expanse,
I pray their light will guide me through.

For I am but a simple boat,
a vessel wearied, worn and weak.
Upon the journey, I shall float;
until my Craftsman makes complete.

Sherry Pedersen-Thrasher

"You can't think how I depend on you, and when you're not there the color goes out of my life."Virginia Woolf -- to her sister

I Pray God's Peace Upon Us All

2007-05-25T00:00:00.001-03:00

These days when life is racing by,
as questions leave us asking why,
when ends don't meet and spirits fall,
I pray God’s peace upon us all.

Somehow, I know, He leads us through,
providing hope as dreams renew.
Upon His name, we all must call,
I pray God’s peace upon us all.

With all I am, that faith imparts,
my prayer is for each wounded heart.
Believe, receive, we shall not fall,
I pray God’s peace upon us all.

I pray God’s peace upon us all.

Amen

I Choose to Live

2007-05-24T23:58:00.001-03:00

Stop--
listen,
continue,
each breath I own.
Choose life, step forward, learn along the way.

All that I am knows my life must go on.
Release the pain,
live again,
inhale,
breathe.

Grow,
exhale,
walk the path
ordained by God.
I see my life as a gift to cherish.

Foggy

2007-05-24T23:55:00.000-03:00

For a time the brain is reeling
Disjointed here with loss of feeling-
But all in all, I think I'm fine
Just sorting out what's in my mind.

A funny thing this time called life,
Moments built on hope and strife,
Then suddenly your life could change-
You find yourself a bit deranged.

But honestly, I think I'm fine,
I'm filtering and passing time-
Just sorting out this time called life,
With thoughts of hope in time of strife.

Absence of Essence

2007-05-24T23:53:00.000-03:00

Too soon, too soon, the flower dies
as beauty fades upon the bloom.
It's floral essence once denied-
lives only in my memory.

Too soon, too soon, a storm unfolds-
the gentle winds of yesterday
now only blow in tales retold,
a scent once fresh upon my mind.

Too soon, too soon, our sad farewell-
the dreams we shared once left behind
turned bittersweet as my tears fell-
a taste of new reality.

Too soon, too soon, a final breath
exhaled your essence known to me.
Though every life must end in death-
it's vision burns eternally.

A Melancholy Mind

2007-05-24T23:50:00.000-03:00

Could you not find the strength to climb-
one friend to call at just that time?
Dark sadness overcame your mind-
now questions are the words I find.

Could you not know that I was there
with strength enough? God knows I care.
If only I could only turn back time,
forgetting all these words of rhyme.

I'd stop the world that's what I'd do,
while pouring love all over you,
to soothe your mind, I'd battle hell,
but you lost hope then quickly fell.

I'd trade my soul, you know that Kim,
to hold you in my arms again-
but all I feel are words that rhyme,
eternity and wasted time.

Sherry Pedersen-Thrasher

"Is solace anywhere more comforting than that in the arms of a sister"Alice Walker