Death is Life Too

My sister Adele… she wrote this down

“Wayist teaching says life is a school

The soul moves through lesson after lesson… karma bein’ the curriculum

Sometimes the hardest lessons… come wrapped in loss

This one’s from a cold prairie winter… a child gone too soon…

and a dead tree that taught me how to hold life… even when it looks like death”

This is her testimony

Bleak prairie winter’s day

Unknown graves, forgotten names

I’m chopping out a dead tree

Just chopping out a dead tree

Then word came… Tracey died

And through these tears I swing this axe

Why, Lord… why her?

Why now?

And the ax-head came loose

Another pain, another truth

Tears the veils, I climb down

Apologizin’ to this dead wood ground

Death is life too…

Yeah, death is life too

Findin’ footing, hand over hand

Findin’ acceptance in this blood-red land

Holdin’ the dead tree close

We’re both crying for life, I guess

And the ax-head came loose

Another pain, another truth

Tears the veils, I climb down

Apologizin’ to this dead wood ground

Death is life too…

Yeah, death is life too

Blood from the cut, spillin’ life

Welcoming earth, endin’ strife

I kiss the tree… a moment we share

This passin’ life, this silent prayer

And the ax-head came loose

Another pain, another truth

Tears the veils, I climb down

Apologizin’ to this dead wood ground

Death is life too…

Oh, death is life too

Bleak Highveld winter’s day…

I kissed the tree…

And I knew