Death Was Nothing At All

Death is nothing at all. It does not count
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Everything remains the same, exactly as it was.
I am I, you are you and the old life we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.

Call me by my familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way you always used.
Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we shared together.
Play. Smile. Think of me. Pray for me.
Speak of me to new children.
Let my name be ever the household word it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the shadow of a ghost upon it.

Life means all it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.

What is death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.

All is well...All is well.

                   ~ Canon Henry Scott Holland