GEMS
From Various Services of Worship
Age is a quality of mind.
If you have left your dreams behind
If hope is cold
If you no longer look ahead
If your ambition fires are dead
Then you are old
But if from life you take the best
If in life you keep a zest
If love you hold
No matter how the years go by
No matter how the birthdays fly
You are not old.
Lord Leister to Lionel Tertis
MISS ME BUT LET ME GO
When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me,
I want no rites in a gloom-filled room:
Why cry for a soul set free!
Miss me a little - but not too long
And not with your head bowed low:
Remember the love that we once shared
Miss me, but let me go!
For this is a journey we all must take
And each must go alone;
It's all part of the master's plan,
A step on the road to home.
When you are lonely and sick of heart,
Go to the friends we know
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds,
Miss me, but let me go……
If I should go
If I should go
Before the rest of you,
break not a flower;
nor when I am gone
speak in a Sunday voice,
but be the usual selves
that I have known.
Weep if you must.
Parting is hell
but life goes on,
so sing as well.
Joyce Grenfell