| Funeral and Memorial Services Religious, Interfaith, Non-Religious, Spiritual, Humanist |
| How do we mourn our loss and still celebrate the gift that someone we love has been to us? By acknowledging our pain and celebrating all the ways that their presence made our lives richer and fuller. How do we do that? Begin with saying the names of who the departed loved and is survived by. They are those in whose hearts your loved ones will continue to live. By asking someone who knew them best to give the Eulogy, Follow with an interactive portion in which people may share their fondest memories. At a service, conversations go on in the corners of the room. Yet in bringing all those stories to the floor, we have the opportunity to laugh and cry together, and to begin the healing process by sharing our joy and sorrow. By including words of scripture or perhaps with a favorite author if your loved one was not a religious person. If you can't begin to think of a source I have many samples. Memorial Readings Sample Services Was there music you would always hear them playing? Perhaps they would have enjoyed the idea of you softly playing the soundtrack of their life in the background. When someone asks "What can I do?" creating this kind of CD is sometimes a wonderful way for them to help, both you and themselves. Are you in the unique situation of planning your own memorial service? I would be honored to write with you. If your funeral director is unfamiliar with my services please feel free to give them my contact information that we may together better serve the needs of your family. |
| Excerpt from a letter to one of my new ministers: "I always feel like I do more good at a funeral than at a wedding. At a wedding, as long as you stick to the couple's content guide lines, almost anyone can do a good job, because they're already so happy. When it is their worst day ever, if you can bring some light to their pain and somehow have them leave with something more than they came in with.... It is then in my opinion, that we have truly served." |
| The Dragonfly Author Unknown Once, in a little pond, in the muddy water under the lily pads, there lived a little water beetle in a community of water beetles. They lived a simple and comfortable life in the pond with few disturbances and interruptions. Once in a while, sadness would come to the community when one of their fellow beetles would climb the stem of a lily pad and would never be seen again. They knew when this happened their friend was dead, gone forever. Then, one day, one little water beetle felt an irresistible urge to climb up that stem. However, he was determined that he would not leave forever. He would come back and tell his friends what he had found at the top. When he reached the top and climbed out of the water onto the surface of the lily pad, he was so tired, and the sun felt so warm, that he decided he must take a nap. As he slept, his body changed and when he woke up, he had turned into a beautiful blue-tailed dragonfly with broad wings and a slender body designed for flying. So, fly he did! And, as he soared he saw the beauty of a whole new world and a far superior way of life to what he had never known existed. Then he remembered his beetle friends and how they were thinking by now he was dead. He wanted to go back to tell them, and explain to them that he was now more alive than he had ever been before. His life had been fulfilled rather than ended. But, his new body would not go down into the water. He could not get back to tell his friends the good news. Then he understood that their time would come, when they, too, would know what he now knew. So, he raised his wings and flew off into his joyous new life! |
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