On paper his name was Earl....
I only knew him as Roland.
He came endowed with unique gifts and talents.
Some of which I came to know and love, some I saw from afar,
and others I never came to truly understand or fully appreciate.
He was elusive, but present
He had a way of looking at things that you and I wouldn’t
His ideas were big, his heart was bigger, and his love
of God won the day
He was kind in unusual ways:
1.
He was very humorous and funny which always put others
at ease and made others feel very comfortable.
2.
He was serious but never took himself too
seriously which made him accessible to all
3.
He shared his love of art by sharing expressions he created with everyone
4.
He was intense and had complex ideas but at the
end of the day he preferred simplicity
5.
He was scholarly, had a PhD, you never would
have known it, as he was never pompous.
6.
He knew a lot and was very smart, but he never led
with ego.
7.
He was a loner but always drew people into him….
You wanted to be around him.
His kindness to me was “Immediate, simple and piercing”
He showed his love of God in the way he spent the last days
of his life.
He knew what was coming…
He demonstrated the kind of courage that you don’t see often,
by refusing to let the cancer beat his spirit.
He was so kind and loving in how he shielded us from that struggle.
And in the way he quietly and reverently
slipped from this life to the next.
We only felt the humor, the wit, the beauty of a life well
lived.
“And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath
from its restless tides,
that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you
indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall
begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you
truly dance.”
Khalil Gibran
Yes…. on paper he was Earl, but to me, he will always be “Roland”
May his beautiful life be celebrated forever.
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing, my heart is aching for those missing him but it is also filled with gratitude for being blessed to know Roland even if only a little.
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