Inspiration

“Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts,
Where no storm or night or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of colour.

The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being;
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
With wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief,
Your spirit was live, awake, complete.

We look towards each other no longer
From the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
We know our soul’s gaze is upon your face,
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.

Let us not look for you only in memory,
Where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
Beside us when beauty brightens,
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,
Darkest winter has turned to spring;
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.

May you continue to inspire us:

To enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love
Until we see your beautiful face again
In that land where there is no more separation,
Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,
And where we will never lose you again.”

John O’Donohue


William gave his time and his heart selflessly and generously to anyone in need. Whether a kind deed, a thoughtful gesture (including a token gift of an origami dollar bill), or an encouraging word, Bill Ruff led his life as an example of courage and compassion. He was a rare type of human who was deeply sensitive, in touch with inner emotional realms as much as he was in touch with the pulse of the earth and the heavens.

In his memory, we are inspired to be kinder to others. Perhaps more difficult but just as important, we are also inspired to be kinder to ourselves. In this challenging season in our world, we are all being called upon to give ourselves the love we deserve, so that we can find the wells of compassion to share that love with others in our lives. This, most of all, is what William would want for each of us. As we grieve the loss of his light in our lives, we embrace the peace and freedom that he now experiences as he watches over us from another realm.

May the words and songs below remind us to be kinder to ourselves during this season of remembering and celebrating William’s time with us on this rock spinning through the cosmos.


That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Please enjoy this playlist of some of the songs Bill curated for his celebration of life.


If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Until his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Emily Dickinson

To live in this world
you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Mary Oliver, “In Blackwater Woods”

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you
shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your
delight.

Kahlil Gibran

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

Richard Bach

Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean.

David Searls

No atoms together casually hurl’d could e’er produce so beautiful a world.

John Dryden

I want to feel the beauty and the pain of the age we are living in.
I want to survive my life without becoming numb.
I want to possess a light touch that can elevate darkness to the realm of the stars.

Terry Tempest Williams

Be a life long or short, its completeness depends on what it was lived for.

David Starr Jordan

In one sense there is no death. The life of a soul on earth lasts beyond his departure. You will always feel that life touching yours, that voice speaking to you, that spirit looking out of other eyes, talking to you in the familiar things he touched, worked with, loved as familiar friends. He lives on in your life and in the lives of all others that knew him.

Angelo Patri

The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light.

Felix Adler