Company of Friends

There’s a song I’d like to share with you. I recognize that last sentence makes me sound like a lovesick teenage boy, but it’s true. There’s a song I’d like to share with you, and here’s why. The holidays are a time of embracing loved ones-family, friends and community. For those of us that love someone that died, the holidays can be a bewildering time. We fully participate in the cheer of the season, but there is an element of sadness. There’s just something missing a lot of the time.

The song is “Company of Friends” by Danny Schmidt and performed by Schmidt and Carry Elkin. For me, this song illuminates a way that I can honor my father, while also acknowledging that he has passed. I commemorate that I am in his eternal company of friends, and I hold the flame of his embers. I also take time to appreciate friends and family that are right here in the now, and to acknowledge how richly those unique individuals texture my world.

COMPANY OF FRIENDS

When I die, let them judge me by my company of friends

Let them know me as the footprints that I left upon the sand

Let them laugh for all the laughter

Let them cry for laughter’s end

But when I die, let them judge me by my company of friends

When I die, let them toast to all the things that I believe

Let them raise a glass to consciousness

And not spill a drop for grief

Let the bubbles rise at midnight

Let their tongues get light as thieves

And when I die, let them toast to all the things that I believe

I believe in restless hunger

I believe in red balloons

I believe in private thunder

In the end I do believe

I believe in inspiration

I believe in lightning bugs

I believe in slow creation

In the end I do believe

I believe in ink on paper

I believe in lips on ears

I believe what’s shared is savored

In the end I do believe

I believe in work on Sundays

I believe in raising barns

I believe in wasting Mondays

In the end I do believe

I believe in intuition

I believe in being wrong

I believe in contradiction

In the end I do believe

I believe in living smitten

I believe all hearts will mend

I believe our book is written

By our company of friends

Best of the season to you and yours, Kaci

2 thoughts on “Company of Friends”

Thank you for this, Kaci! Six years after losing my own father, this time of year is still not easy. Hell, any time of year… you get my point. Knowing him as well as I did, he would definitely want me to realize all the good that came from his passing. Things like understanding the importance of taking time to appreciate friends and family who are right here, right now, and to acknowledge how richly those unique individuals texture my world. Things like telling it like it is, even when it feels like the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. Things like loving with all my heart and soul when I found the love of my life.