Eternal Life on the Potomac River

Having just recently visited the Potomac River, many memories have been resurfaced from my life. The memories of the time I spent with my aunt at the river, when I was a child became most vivid. She was an artist, a wife & mother, a true Christian, and a maritime heart. In visiting the Potomac River I was ever reminded of her, and life as it had been fifteen years ago staying with her at the cottage on the river. She went to rest in 1993 of cardiac arrest. With her passing, her ashes were set to river. Though it has been thirteen years, she still lives on in my heart.

The Christian paradox is that you must die in order to have eternal life. Everyone leaves some sort of legacy in the world after they pass. Whether you have done something extraordinary to create some social precedent or simply produced an heir in this world, you have left a mark that lives beyond you eternally. Every time I look at the river I think of my aunt, her talents, kindness, and faith in the face of adversity. Her legacy is with that river, as all the memories come alive from it.

Many other beliefs state that to have everlasting life you are to be born again, reincarnated to another form. In life my aunt’s heart was at home on the river. Now she is of the river. The river flows constantly with life as she is with it, part of it. In this way she will never die.

In the midst of death life goes on, forever affected by it.

In memory
Barbara T. Lane 1934-1993