Now That I’m In Heaven
By: Lindsay Oravits
Now that I’m in Heaven
I can fly with the angels
Sing with the birds
Drift with the clouds
Dance in the rain.
Now That I’m in Heaven
I can laugh with the thunder
Soar with the stars
Walk on a rainbow
Shine with the moon.
Now that I’m in Heaven
I can smile with the sun
Talk with the wind
Run with the lightning
And sleep in Immortal arms.
Now that I’m in Heaven
I’d never go back.
This is my place now
Where I belong.
Now that I’m in Heaven.
What’s On The Other Side?
A sick man turned to his doctor, as he was leaving the room
after paying a visit, and said, “Doctor, I am afraid to die.
Tell me what lies on the other side.”
Very quietly the doctor said, “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? You, a Christian man, do not know what is
on the other side?”
The doctor was holding the handle of the door, on the other
side of which came a sound of scratching and whining, and as
he opened the door a dog sprang into the room and leaped on
him with an eager show of gladness. Turning to the patient,
the doctor said, “Did you notice that dog? He had never been
in this room before. He did not know what was inside. He
knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the
door opened he sprang in without fear. I know little of what
is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing:
I know my Master is there, and that is enough. And when the
door opens, I shall pass through with no fear, but gladness.”
~~Author Unknown~~
Jenny Did the Right Thing
This Will Make You Cry…
Jenny was so happy about the house they had found.
For once in her life ’twas on the right side of town. She unpacked her things
with such great ease. As she watched her new curtains blow in the breeze.
How wonderful it was to have her own room. There’d be sleep-overs, and parties;
she was so happy.
It’s just the way she wanted her life to be.
On the first day of school, everything went great. She made new friends and
even got a date! She thought, “I want to be popular and I’m going to be,
Because I just got a date with the star of the team!”
To be known in this school you had to have a clout, And dating this guy would
surely help her out. There was only one problem stopping her fate. Her parents
had said she was too young to date.
“Well I just won’t tell them the entire truth. They won’t know the difference;
what’s there to lose?” Jenny asked to stay with her friends that night. Her
parents frowned but said, “All right.”
Excited, she got ready for the big event.
But as she rushed around like she had no sense, She began to feel guilty about
all the lies, But what’s a pizza, a party, and a moonlight ride?
Well the pizza was good, and the party was great,
But the moonlight ride would have to wait.
For Jeff was half drunk by this time. But he kissed her and said that he was
just fine. Then the room filled with smoked and Jeff took a puff.
Jenny couldn’t believe he was smoking that stuff.
Now Jeff was ready to ride to the point, But only after he’d smoked another
joint. They jumped in the car for the moonlight ride, Not thinking that he was
too drunk to drive.
They finally made it to the point at last,
And Jeff started trying to make a pass.
A pass is not what Jenny wanted at all (and by a pass, I don’t mean playing
football.) “Perhaps my parents were right… maybe I am too young. Boy, how
could I ever, ever be so dumb.”
With all of her might, she pushed Jeff say away: “Please take me home, I don’t
want to stay.” Jeff cranked up the engine and floored the gas. In a matter of
seconds they were going too fast.
As Jeff drove on in a fit of wild anger, Jenny knew that her life was in
danger.
She begged and pleaded for him to slow down, But he just got faster as they
neared the town. “Just let me get home! I’ll confess that I lied. I really went
out for a moonlight ride.”
Then all of a sudden, she saw a big flash.
“Oh God, Please help us! We’re going to crash!”
She doesn’t remember the force of impact. Just that everything
all of a sudden went black. She felt someone remove her from the twisted
rubble,
And heard, “call an ambulance! These kids are in trouble!” Voices she heard…a
few words at best. But she knew there were two cars involved in the wreck.
Then wondered to herself if Jeff was all right,
And if the people in the other car were alive. She awoke in the hospital to
faces so sad. “You’ve been in a wreck
and it looks pretty bad.” These voices echoed inside her head, As they gently
told her that Jeff was dead.
They said “Jenny, we’ve done all we can do. But it looks as if we’ll lose you
too.” “But the people in the other car!?”
Jenny cried. “We’re sorry, Jenny, they also died.” Jenny prayed, “God, forgive
me for what I’ve done I only wanted to have just one night of fun.”
“Tell those people’s family, I’ve made their lives dim, And wish I could return
their families to them.” “Tell Mom and Dad I’m sorry I lied, And that it’s my
fault so many have died.
Oh, nurse, won’t you please tell them that for me?” The nurse just stood there-
she never agreed. But took Jenny’s hand with tears in her eyes. And a few
moments later Jenny died. A man asked the nurse, “Why didn’t you do your best
to bid that girl her one last request?”
She looked at the man with eyes so sad. “Because the people in the other car
were her mom and dad.” This story is sad and unpleasant but true, So young
people take heed, it could have been you.
Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss may be dead, but he’ll never be gone
TV broke the news:
Dr. Seuss is quite dead.
I said, “Aw, too bad”
and got ready for bed.
I drifted to sleep at 12:49
but my brain was still working
on a silly Seuss rhyme.
I hadn’t been drinking
(no gin or vermoose)
but at the foot on my bed
stood the real Dr. Seuss.
He said he was there
as part of my dream;
a fine explanation,
at least it would seem.
“Did I teach you to read?
he asked rather loudly.
“Most certainly yes,”
I replied very proudly.
Then Seuss admitted,
“I killed Dick and Jane,
and did kids a favor;
both were so plain.”
He’s got a point there;
I can’t argue with that
having learned how to read
from his Cat in the Hat.
Seuss conjured up creatures
with unusual features;
six legs and two faces
from weird and strange places.
Thing One and Thing Two,
now that was sure new;
and remember those fish
one Red and one Blue?
I thought his creations
were tucked away in my head,
but suddenly, somehow
out from under my bed came
all the Seuss cast — the entire flock!
I’ll tell you right now,
that was some kind of shock.
The Cat in the Hat
carried green eggs and Ham;
Horton came with his Whos
and a grouch who knew Sam.
Next came all the sights
found on Mulberry Street;
even adults must admit
that this dream sure was neat.
The Lorax, McGrew
and a turtle named Yertle
are proof that his mind
was really quite fertile.
The last character emerged
and I just had to flinch
as my pillow was stolen
by the one known as Grinch.
I looked and I looked
but it was hard to keep track;
the room was so crowded
they stood back to back.
A Nerkle, and Obsk
and another quite strange,
all stood on the dresser
and ate my spare change.
And elephant so faithful
and a small speck of dust;
the room was so crowded,
I feared it would bust.
The Wickersham Brothers
brought Beezie-Nut oil,
and a Truffula Fruit
that had started to spoil.
A keen-shooter, mean-shooter,
bean-shooter bug
bonked a bean off my nose
and hid under the rug.
Sneetches and Thnadners
and Thidwick the Moose
pried open a box,
and Thing Two was now loose.
He joined Thing One
and the two had some fun
with Fox in those socks
(one had a run).
A lad from Motta-fa-Potta-fa-Pell
told me Seuss is the reason
I fail when I spell.
Seuss made up the words
to fit into his verse;
if he didn’t, of course
his rhymes would be worse.
A woman from Who-ville,
sitting near my right ear,
whispered then shouted,
“It’s crowded in here!”
And Seuss, he agreed,
and whipped out a machine
with hoses and vacuums
and two brooms to clean.
“You don’t have to shoo us,”
said Thing One or Thing Two.
“We’re ready to leave here,
our job is all through.”
With that they skedaddled
across the wood floor;
I woke as the last one was shutting the door.
This could not, should not,
have been just a dream;
so I got out a flashlight
and focused the beam.
I looked through the house,
both upstairs and down,
but the creatures had vanished,
they could not be found.
It hit me just then,
as I searched the front lawn
Dr. Seuss may be dead
but he’ll never be gone.
Big Teddy Cried
by Kathleene S. Baker
I
I Only Wanted You
They say memories are golden
well maybe that is true.
I never wanted memories,
I only wanted you.
A million times I needed you,
a million times I cried.
If love alone could have saved you
you never would have died.
In life I loved you dearly,
In death I love you still.
In my heart you hold a place
no one could ever fill.
If tears could build a stairway
and heartache make a lane,
I’d walk the path to heaven
and bring you back again.
Our family chain is broken,
and nothing seems the same.
But as God calls us one by one,
the chain will link again.
Author unknown
Beautiful, She Said
I never thought that I understood her. She always seemed so far away from me. I loved her, of course. We shared mutual love from the day I was born.
I came into this world with a bashed head and deformed features because of the hard labor my mother had gone through. Family members and friends wrinkled their noses at the disfigured baby I was. They all commented on how much I looked like a beat-up football player. But no, not her. Nana thought I was beautiful. Her eyes twinkled with splendor and happiness at the ugly baby in her arms. Her first granddaughter. Beautiful, she said.
Before final exams in my junior year of high school, she died.
Seven years earlier, her doctors had diagnosed Nana with Alzheimer’s disease. Our family became experts on this disease as, slowly, we lost her.
She always spoke in fragmented sentences. As the years passed, the words she spoke became fewer and fewer, until finally she said nothing at all. We were lucky to get one occasional word out of her. It was then that our family knew she was near the end.
About a week or so before she died, her body lost the ability to function at all, and the doctors decided to move her to a hospice. A hospice: where those who enter never come out.
I told my parents I wanted to see her. I had to see her. My uncontrollable curiosity had taken a step above my gut-wrenching fear.
My mother brought me to the hospice two days later. My grandfather and two of my aunts were there as well, but they hung back in the hallway as I entered Nana’s room. She was sitting in a big, fluffy chair next to her bed, slouched over, eyes shut, mouth numbly hanging open. The morphine was keeping her asleep. My eyes darted around the room at the windows, the flowers and the way Nana looked. I was struggling very hard to take it all in, knowing that this would be the last time I ever saw her alive.
I slowly sat down across from her. I took her left hand and held it in mine, brushing a stray lock of golden hair away from her face. I just sat and stared, motionless, in front of her, unable to feel anything. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. I could not get over how awful she looked, sitting there helpless.
Then it happened. Her little hand wrapped around mine tighter and tighter. Her voice began what sounded like a soft howl. She seemed to be crying in pain. And then she spoke.
“Jessica.” Plain as day. My name. Mine. Out of four children, two sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law and six grandchildren, she knew it was me.
At that moment, it was as though someone were showing a family filmstrip in my head. I saw Nana at my baptizing. I saw her at my fourteen dance recitals. I saw her bringing me roses and beaming with pride. I saw her tap-dancing on our kitchen floor. I saw her pointing at her own wrinkled cheeks and telling me that it was from her that I inherited my big dimples. I saw her playing games with us grandkids while the other adults ate Thanksgiving dinner. I saw her sitting with me in my living room at Christmas time, admiring our brightly decorated tree.
I then looked at her as she was . . . and I cried.
I knew she would never see my final senior dance recital or watch me cheer for another football game. She would never sit with me and admire our Christmas tree again. I knew she would never see me go off to my senior prom, graduate from high school and college, or get married. And I knew she would never be there the day my first child was born. Tear after tear rolled down my face.
But above all, I cried because I finally knew how she had felt the day I had been born. She had looked through what she saw on the outside and looked instead to the inside, and she had seen a life.
I slowly released her hand from mine and brushed away the tears staining her cheeks, and mine. I stood, leaned over, and kissed her and said, “You look beautiful.”
And with one long last look, I turned and left the hospice.
Reprinted by permission of Jessica Gardner (c) 1998 from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul II by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Kimberly Kirberger. In order to protect the rights of the copyright holder, no portion of this publication may be reproduced without prior written consent. All rights reserved.
In Time Of Loss
Lonely is the home without you,
Life to us is not the same,
All the world would be like heaven
If we could have you back again.
A light is from our household gone,
A voice we loved is still,
A place is vacant in our home,
That never can be filled.
May the God of Love and Mercy
Care our loved one who is gone.
And bless with consolation
Those left to carry on.
The happy hours we once enjoyed
How sweet their memory still,
But death has left a vacant place
The world can never fill.
How dearly we loved you,
And prayed you might live,
But Jesus just beckoned,
And we had to give.
God gave us strength to bear it,
And courage to fight the blow,
What it has meant to lose you
God alone will ever know.
All Those Years
by Richard Soul
After all those years together
How do you describe the pain
When your loved one
Farewell
The sand of time are running low
And soon my children I must go
My heart with love for you is filled
But soon its beating must be stilled
I leave no treasures of any kind
Only my love I leave behind
Take it and share it between sister and brother
And always be kind to one another
Weep not beside the grave for me
Don’t bring me flowers I cannot see
Only ashes lie neath the cold sod
Just pray that my soul has gone with God
Some of you perhaps may weep
When my eyes are closed in eternal sleep
But try to remember it won’t be forever
For God can bring our spirits together
I pray that I go to a world far above
To be with the others that I love
And to wait awhile on that Heavenly plain
Until the day we shall meet again.
The poem was written by: Florence McInnes