When great trees fall....

Joann was wise and soulful and a great teacher.  I loved learning through her wisdom. 

Joann provided wonderful reflection with compassion, and in doses that I could digest.   I came to Haven with a huge blind spot about how I be with others.  She showed me ways to be ‘good enough’.  I am a better being - friend, mother, colleague because of Joann.

Joann – you are a great soulful tree.

Anita

 

When great trees fall,

Rocks on distant hills shudder,

Lions hunker down

In tall grasses,

And even elephants

Lumber after safety.

 

When great trees fall

In forests,

Small things recoil into silence,

Their senses

Eroded beyond fear

 

When great souls die

The air around us becomes

Light, rare, sterile,

We breathe, briefly,

Our eyes, briefly, see with

A hurtful clarity.

 

Our memory, suddenly sharpened,

Examines,

Gnaws on kind words

Unsaid,

Promised walks

Never taken,

Great souls die and

Our reality, bound to

Them, takes leave of us,

Our souls,

Dependent upon their

Nurture,

Now shrunk, wizened.

Our minds formed

And informed by their

Radiance,

Fall away.

We are not so much maddened

As reduced to the unutterable ignorance

Of dark, cold

Caves

And when great souls die,

After a period peace blooms, Slowly and always

Irregularly, Spaces fill

With a kind of

Soothing electric vibration.

Our senses, restored, never

To be the same, whisper to us

They existed.  They existed.  We can be.  Be and be Better.

For they existed.

Maya Angelou