I believe...

"Somewhere over the rainbow, Skies are blue, And the dreams that you dare to dream, Really do come true."

I would love to believe it but it is not always true. Dreams die. They burn in a bright blinding fire and then sometimes they turn to dust and ashes as we watch. Skies turn grey, black.
Sometimes a rainbow heralds a hurricane or floods.

I often wonder what we are supposed to do with broken dreams. I have watched people die, children die, love die. I wonder what one does then.

I remember my aunt. She was a kindred spirit. She had the gift of laughter. She taught me to laugh and gave me one of the greatest gifts in life - the ability to see humour lurking everywhere and the courage to aways choose life. It was she who introduced me, as a child, to Winnie the Pooh, the poems of Ogden Nash and the limericks of Stephen Leacock.

She laughed in the face of all the odds and pain. She lost a husband, after 10 suicide attempts and she survived. She made her life count even after that. She joined a Help Group in order to help those in trouble. And she laughed. I remember her peels of laughter ringing through time after time. And yet she suffered deep pain, so much so that she died after several years of dementia brought on by depression.Yet even through her depression she laughed and smiled.

She fought for life and for laughter. She loved greatly. She sought the beautiful - the colours of flowers, the feathers of a bird, the eyes of a cat. She had a sense of wonder about things around her. She had words of kindness to offer everyone she met - a beggar on the street, children. She had words of appreciation always for everyone - even those who fought with her. She gave - she gave away all she had to those around her.

And I remember a card she sent me - long ago. It was home made and a small piece of paper folded in two with a quotation on it. She said she hoped I would remember it all my life. I have!

"Sweeping across Germany at the end of World War II, Allied forces searched farms and houses looking for snipers. At one abandoned house, almost a heap of rubble, searchers with flashlights found their way to the basement. There, on the crumbling wall, a victim of the Holocaust had scratched a Star of David. And beneath it, in rough lettering, the message:
I believe in the sun--even when it does not shine;
I believe in love--even when it is not shown;
I believe in God--even when He does not speak."

I realise now that these words were so powerfully true for her, and I know now how she found hope in the midst of all her pain. It has taught me to hold on through the darkest times, to laugh, to hope and to love against life's amazing odds.