"...Be Not Proud"

 "Life, and Death"

This is a scene below is from the HBO production of "Wit". A very moving, though painful film to watch. Still it speaks to what so many of us have experienced. A loved one nearing death. Struggling with fear pain, and sometimes madness.

Many of us have now been care givers to both family, and friends. To you there's nothing I can say that you don't already know. No doubt many of you were braver, and wiser than I, but we all did what we had to at the best of our ability.

Bless you all.

Death, be not proud (Holy Sonnet 10)

John Donne, 1572 - 1631

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. 

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery. 

Thou’art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy’or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, death thou shalt die.