11/12/2024
I've received a few messages from people who saw last night's webcast and a couple of people at the service itself asking me to share a copy of the poem I read.
This was inspired by the wonderful Joan Washington, wife of the equally wonderful .e.grant She said before she died she wanted them to find a Pocketful of Happiness in every day and Richard has been telling people how he does that (as well as bringing them to people...if you haven't seen The Franchise please do so immediately).
Anyway this kept repeating in my head particularly as we navigated our own season of grief so.. this came out of my brain and I read it at the service yesterday and it seemed to create its own pocket.
Please feel free to download, share, print off and put in your pocket. Whatever helps.
A Pocketful of Happiness
Leni Robson
Grief, gentle and unyielding,
is the weight of love with nowhere to rest—
a shadow cast by every memory,
each precious moment too tender to touch.
It lingers, soft and constant,
a reminder of all we held so close.
Each day brings its own quiet gifts,
a scattering of light hidden in ordinary hours.
And so I search, knowing how much it matters,
finding these pocketfuls of happiness—
the way morning settles warm on my skin,
a bird’s song woven through silence.
To look, to gather these moments,
is to remember what remains,
the quiet traces of love still present,
even as shadows stretch beside us.
These small joys fill the empty spaces,
bringing light through the ache.
Grief does not leave, but it softens in the light,
and love shifts to carry me forward,
rooted in laughter, in sunlight,
in all the simple ways those we love say 'I am here'
Each day, I reach for what I can find—
the shape of joy, the scent of hope.
Reminders tucked gently in my pockets,
a pocketful of happiness to carry me through.
This is how I live, how I heal:
by gathering love, again and again,
in every fragile, beautiful moment,
a testament that love lives on.
