Tending Tenderness

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Tending the tenderness
Filling my heart
Extending out
Beyond its edges
Weeping into tissues
Meant perhaps for other things.
Tender remembering
My love
The one who passed
One year ago, today.
The love remains
My partner for life
No longer in life
Cannot continue
Walking beside me.
I miss his hand in mine.
I miss his kind smile.
The twinkle in his eye
His unexpected humour
And the always expected stories,
Again.
I miss how we danced in the kitchen
I dance with him still
But it’s not quite the same.
I play his music
Chat with him about my day
He seems to listen
More silently
Than in life.
Today
This anniversary day
I sit with him
In quietude
And tears.
Heart wrenched
Between worlds.
I reach to him
Feel him
Sense his light
Sense his ongoing work
In ways I hadn’t expected.
Grief mixed with gratitude
All he gave me
And so many others
Lapping up his knowledge
Brilliance freely offered
Curiosity combining fields
Where others had not imagined
What now was possible.
So many of us
Remember today
How this remarkable man
Changed our lives
For the better
In so many ways.
Tenderness being tended
By community.
I feel supported
Buoyed by love.
We need not fear the grief
It simply shows us
How deeply we love
How immensely we loved.
Tending the tenderness
It grows like a fine fire
Lighting my heart
As he lit my world.