November 11 Remembrance Day and JWS

 

 

I have been thinking of all those who have died in the service of their countries and it saddens me that these acts of service have required the deaths of so many people, especially young people. My prayer is that we can come to settle our differences without war and one day we will remember those who will bring us to a new way of resolving conflict. A pipe dream?  Maybe. But since what we are currently doing isn’t working well, we can always hope for a better way.

 

The other truth is that today I am mostly remembering our friend John W Stephure, whose Birthday is November 11^th.  Had he not died in June, we would have all been celebrating his 59^th this evening.

 

So today I am especially thinking of his beloved wife Meredith and his children whose loss is simply beyond words. And I’m thinking of John’s brothers and sister and families and the “nephers” as he loved to call Joy’s four boys.

 

And so it is. A loved one deeply and sorely missed.

 

I understand the story the Buddha  told  of the grieving mother and the mustard seed. When a mother loses her only son, she takes his body to the Buddha to find a cure. The Buddha asks her to bring a handful of mustard seeds from a family that has never lost a child, husband, parent or friend. When the mother is unable to find such a house in her village, she realizes that death is common to all.

 

The head gets the story but the heart still weeps. And so my thoughts are with the Stephures everyday but today I just want to say how much we miss this dear friend and honourable man who was in particular your beloved husband and father and brother.

 

A toast to John with thanks and appreciation and love, T&G

 

PS And of course all of us who knew John can never forget that laugh.He continually broke up an International Conference on Morita Therapy at UBC. Everyone wanted to be at John's table because of all the fun.

 

"Family, Faith, Friends and Fun." John's Four Fs.

 

Comments

[Yoshie]

What a nice moment you caught!
John's face is and will be always smiling in my memory.
As other friends of yours,I am also glad you are back like the sun comes up again. Yoshie