The Graze V.118: Memorial
Dear Friends:
I sat down on the porch with a friend to talk about death this week. Greg Camp is a 3rd generation funeral home director from Woodstock VT. He said that he had not remembered a busier year. The pandemic had folks put off funerals and burials and now the calendar is full. He said that he is finding younger folks wishing to make their wishes known for their own death.
Greg is helping me to plan several burials in the weeks to come at Mission Farm (several at the foot of the tree in the photo above). He is also guiding me as we create new memorial space at Mission Farm. We are designing burial options to have a minimal environmental impact and conserve (and maybe even enhance) natural resources.
Clearly the pandemic has brought the reality of death closer to home. It is hard to get through a day without reading or hearing a death count. Greg and I spoke as we watched a large red hawk circling the chicken yard. The young chicks, aware of this looming shadow, hid in the tall grass.
The universal spiritual pattern of life is loss and renewal. We experience loss around us everyday: the life cycle of plants; the predator and prey; the compost pile; even the birth of new stars! The Christian faith articulates this reality as death and resurrection. There is comfort in that the whole of Blessed Community is so big and so deep that it is able to include death.
We too, follow this natural pattern. Not only in our death but every time we experience loss. Each time we trust and surrender to dying and acknowledge grief, we are led to a deeper level of living. This process of loss and renewal; death and resurrection is part of the evolutionary path toward wholeness.
In an important way, death holds hope - reminding me to look for new signs of life and new ways of being.
There is no gathering this Sunday at Mission Farm , (July 31). Feel free to join St. James in Woodstock - either in person or on line (link button below)
We will gather again at Mission Farm on August 7. Please join us at 9:30 in the orchard for a Blessing of the Berries, Holy Communion and Pie!!!
Blessings for all the new ways of being,
Lisa