RIP Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson's music always made me feel good. He undoubtedly played an important role in the making of the soundtrack of my life and his young boy's smile always made me smile. He will be remembered for the good and not the bad.

RIP Michael.

Le Pont Mirabeau

Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l'onde si lasse

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

Guillaume Apollinaire

Touching base

My parents are due to arrive tomorrow to celebrate Clara's 9th birthday with us. Last year they said they would probably not come again because they already felt too old and tired. Yet, for the sake of their granddaughters, they overcame those feelings and a couple of months ago decided to book the flight to come. They bring us such joy! Can't wait for them to be here!

I feel like I'm in convalescence. Grief and bereavement do that to you, I guess, but this is taking longer than what's deemed convenient. You know that you're supposed to snap out of it quickly, that your sadness is an uncomfortable nuisance to everyone around you, but setbacks happen and sometimes you're sent spinning back into those dark spirals again. Not practical when you've got small kids. They take in everything that goes on around them, which adds to your feelings of guilt. I'm not one to go around breaking everything in cathartic fits of rage but I tend to go into shutdown mode, minimum, life-support-system-only mode, "I'll handle it later" mode.

Having Mom and Dad around for a couple of days will be such a blessing.

Closure

What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind,
In the primal sympathy,
Which having been must ever be,
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering,
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.

-- William Wordsworth --