if once you have slept on an island you'll never be quite the same; you may look as you looked the day before and go by the same old name,

you may bustle about in street and shop you may sit at home and sew, but you'll see blue water and wheeling gulls wherever your feet may go.

you may chat with the neighbors of this and that and close to your fire keep, but you'll hear ship whistle and lighthouse bell and tides beat through your sleep.

oh! you won't know why and can't say how such a change upon you came but once you have slept on an island, you'll never be quite the same. - rachel lyman field

a beautiful poem shared in grandma's celebration of life (funeral) program this past monday.