by Kevin Burton I bury my mother today. Can you imagine such a thing? Life is a coin flip, with love on one side and pain on the other. Pain, in some measure, is the residue of love. Live. Love. Toss the coin. Do it. “There’s a sad day coming, and …
Category Archives: death
My Friend, “Prepaid” Is The Only Way To Go
by Kevin Burton I called the cemetery where my mother will be buried next week and told the clerk that the time had come. The clerk was actually en route to work. She said she would look up our family’s records once she got there, and call me back. “Everything is paid …
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Make Time For Mom, You’ll Be Glad You Did
by Kevin Burton One day my mother received a letter. The people who owned the house she was renting were going to sell it, and she had 30 days to get out. It was ridiculous to expect her to move that quickly, and my brother successfully negotiated an additional six weeks. But we …
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Bye For Now, Evelyn Marie, Bye For Now
by Kevin Burton Mom started it. I followed suit right away. We both understood though we never discussed it. Somewhere, maybe six or seven years ago, we began ending a phone conversation or one of my visits to her at assisted living or in the nursing home with “bye for now!” We’ll …
Dave Mason And A Place That’s Far Away
by Kevin Burton There was just one song that brought Dave Mason into my top-40-based musical awareness in the 70s, but that was enough to keep him there. Mason died April 19, and tributes began to pour in from people who knew him as I didn’t, as a co-founder of the British rock …
He Is Risen! There Is Hope For The Hopeless
by Kevin Burton Your tombstone and mine will land with the thud of finality. Jesus’ tombstone was pushed aside in very short order. This was God’s plan, and we rejoice in it today on Easter, as we serve a risen Savior, who conquered death to make a way for us to be saved. …
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Seals and Crofts Music Sticks To Your Ribs
by Kevin Burton I like barbecue sauce. I love cayenne pepper and other hot spices. But I don’t have to have it on everything, all the time. And so it is with screaming guitars and scene-stealing guitar solos. They are cool sometimes, but I can live without them. So it was that …
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Good Advice: Hold Lightly To Earthly Things
by Kevin Burton James called your life and mine “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14b NKJV). Even those with a complete lack of discernment and self-awareness, if they would pause long enough to just do the math of life, I think would still come to …
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Neil Sedaka And How I Loved His Second Act
by Kevin Burton I love laughter, I love rain, and I love me some Neil Sedaka. So the news that Sedaka died Feb. 27 at age 86, stung. I never knew the man of course. Never got within 100 miles of him as far as I know. Yet he was a friend …
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No Tears In Heaven, No End To Tears On Earth
by Kevin Burton The former things. The former things. May they soon become former. There is a song, “The Tabernacle of God,” released in 1979 by Cynthia Clawson. It has always been a favorite of mine, but these days it leaps up and grabs me. My mother is in hospice care now. …
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