{"id":1058,"date":"2017-01-28T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-28T17:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/a-viking-ship-what-way-to-go\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:08:49","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:08:49","slug":"a-viking-ship-what-way-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=1058","title":{"rendered":"A Viking Ship — What a Way to Go!"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

I sat with my youngest grandson yesterday, reading another book about Vikings. I must say I\u2019ve learned more about Vikings in the last couple of months than I had ever known. The first Viking book was fiction about a very poor family in Denmark in the early 1900s who lived on what rich folks considered to be haunted land. Eventually a Viking ship was discovered buried under a great mound on their property that changed everything. To continue his school studies, now he\u2019s reading a more extensive book on that time era and we both were captivated with the legends of the Vikings and Raiders (BTW \u2013 we\u2019re not talking about the football teams, though now I have a little more insight into why those team names came about).<\/p>\n

This book is very pictorial and it opened our eyes to their living conditions. One of their great warriors had died and they were preparing him for burial. His wife was changing his clothes before they put him in the bottom of his ship. The richest Vikings would be buried with ships that were filled with clothes, weapons, furniture, horses, dogs, and even servants. The ships were then covered with earth in funeral mounds. Their beliefs were that it\u2019s a good thing to die, because they are entering into their next life, and those objects (and treasures from their raids), people and animals they bury with them, would be there to serve and help them in the next life. <\/p>\n

Whew! Thank goodness we believe in such a better ending from our temporary assignment on this earth to our eternal afterlife in heaven. When I saw the woman changing her deceased husband\u2019s clothes pictured in the book, I said to Bryson, \u201cThat reminds me of the day your Papa went to heaven. Remember how Papa couldn\u2019t sit up for so long because his back hurt him so much?\u201d Bryson shook his head that he remembered. I continued, \u201cWell, Papa\u2019s nurse asked me for clothes to put on Papa to go to the funeral home in and I gave her one of Papa\u2019s warm-up suits. She said, \u201cYou can go out now, and I\u2019ll change him.\u201d I said, \u201cNo, I\u2019ll stay and help you. I haven\u2019t seen him sitting up in a very long time, but today I can sit him up and he\u2019s no longer in pain! Isn\u2019t it great that Papa doesn\u2019t hurt anymore and he\u2019s having such a great time in heaven?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

I gave Bryson a hug and I realized, still, how much I miss that beautiful man, and wished this youngest grandson had known him as well as the older grandchildren did. Thankfully, none of us think often of those last days of Papa on this earth. We only recollect that strong, robust, brilliant, hilarious, and loving man who could do just about anything\u2026literally. Papa was the BEST fisherman, hunter, piano player, singer, builder of houses, mechanic on cars, could fix anything, best story teller ever, and so many other talents that none could surpass him \u2013 at least not in our eyes.
\n.
\nI don\u2019t like to push memories or thoughts of my husband to the side because the best of him is in me, my children and my grandchildren. Often, we\u2019ll talk about him and remember one of his stories or jokes or funny way of doing things \u2013 like the way he\u2019d leave one of his favorite food bites on the corner of his plate. That\u2019s the last bite he would eat and savor. Or the way he would put the milk in the bowl BEFORE he put the cereal in, or the way he\u2019d want us to use our fork in one hand and the knife in the other hand to shovel the food in the fork.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the really good news. It\u2019s okay to miss Papa (my Sweetheart) and still fully live the life God has created for me. The missing reminds me this world is not my home and that life is precious and short. Whether I live thirty more days or thirty more years, this life will be over sooner than I think. Knowing this reminds me to slow down, to live generously, to forgive often, and to love deeply \u2013 to cuddle with those who lean into me and want to talk and share about the best of times. <\/p>\n

I am so grateful for the knowledge of knowing that Papa didn\u2019t have to get buried with anything except the clothes we buried him in, because those clothes don\u2019t matter. The grave doesn\u2019t matter. What matters is, he really does have an afterlife\u2026..actually it\u2019s the real life that he was destined for \u2013 where there is freedom from pain and sorrow and there’s eternal praises and joys forevermore. 1 Corinthians 2:9 \u201cNo eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human mind has conceived — the things God has prepared for those who love Him.\u201d And, Papa loved Him so much, I can only imagine the afterlife he is getting to live!!! <\/p>\n

So for now, I will embrace the memories, the sweet kisses from heaven that remind me he is probably leaning over heaven\u2019s balconies\u2026..cheering us on\u2026..like he did on this earth when he tried to convince us to eat his way or hold a knife and fork like he did \u2013 saying \u201cYa\u2019 gotta\u2019 see this. Ya\u2019 gotta\u2019 be here. Ya’ gotta’ do this! It is worth the journey\u2026..it is worth it all.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I sat with my youngest grandson yesterday, reading another book about Vikings. I must say I\u2019ve learned more about Vikings in the last couple of months than I had ever known. The first Viking book was fiction about a very poor family in Denmark in the early 1900s who lived on what rich folks considered…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6600,6601,6602,6603,6604,4210,2859,6605,6606,6607,6608,6609,6610,6308],"class_list":["post-1058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1-corinthians-29","tag-afterlife","tag-denmark","tag-embrace-the-memories","tag-grave","tag-heaven","tag-memories","tag-missing","tag-no-eye-has-seen","tag-raiders","tag-temporary-assignment","tag-this-world-is-not-my-home","tag-viking-ship","tag-vikings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6248,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058\/revisions\/6248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}