PAUL HOUSTON

News from around the peninsula of the tragic death of Paul Houston

Inishowen News
Derry Journal

WISDOM OF THE WORLD - WEEK 62

A Useless Life

A farmer got so old that he couldn't work the fields anymore. So he would spend the day just sitting on the porch. His son, still working the farm, would look up from time to time and see his father sitting there. "He's of no use any more," the son thought to himself, "he doesn't do anything!"

One day the son got so frustrated by this, that he built a wood coffin, dragged it over to the porch, and told his father to get in. Without saying anything, the father climbed inside. After closing the lid, the son dragged the coffin to the edge of the farm where there was a high cliff. As he approached the drop, he heard a light tapping on the lid from inside the coffin.

He opened it up. Still lying there peacefully, the father looked up at his son. "I know you are going to throw me over the cliff, but before you do, may I suggest something?"

"What is it?" replied the son.

"Throw me over the cliff, if you like," said the father, "but save this good wood coffin... Your children might need to use it."

Source

WISDOM OF THE WORLD - WEEK 31

DEATH IS NOTHING AT ALL

I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you: whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name; speak to me in the easy way, which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone; wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be forever the same as it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow on it.
Life means more than it ever meant.
It is the same as it always was: there is absolutely unbroken continuity.
I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner…. All is well.

Canon Scott Holland