Memorials
At the end of our lives, the questions are simple: Did I live fully? Did I love well? - Jack Kornfeld
It is said that when someone dies, God sends down two angels. One to carry the soul up to heaven. The other remains with the mourners.
A memorial service is a tribute to a human being's life... a tribute to the life led by your departed loved one. Attend to the healing and forgiveness needed...appropriately, sensitively. Together we select prayers, readings, music and rituals. Spirituality is emphasized, not religious dogma. All readings and rituals are offered in a universal context. Creative alternatives and solutions are offered and welcomed. Begin or continue a process of healing and letting go... with love. Honor his/her wishes. Celebrate the life.
The following is a reading by Henry Scott Holland (adapted )
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I, and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name, speak to
me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone, wear no
forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little
jokes we enjoyed together.
Pray, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was,
Let it be spoken without effect; without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was: there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well.
To those who grieve...
You are not alone. Angels walk with you.