Without going into all the details... I've been asked to do a reading at a memorial service. And to provide it.
The service is for the adult daughter (20?) of an acquaintance who is a friend of mutual friends--and for a time the family attended our fellowship, years ago. I interacted with the daughter, but we weren't ever close.
She was killed in a car accident.
And I'm just starting to look for a text. Naturally, I need it ASAP, although the memorial won't be for a few weeks.
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Here are some I've used, Ogre.
I AM NOT THERE
by Mary E. Frye
Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow;
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain;
I am the gentle autumn rain
when you wake in morning hush.
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there, I do not sleep.
NOW VOYAGER
by May Sarton
Now voyager, lay here your dazzled head.
Come back to earth from air, be nourished,
Not with that light on light, but with this bread.
Here close to earth be cherished, mortal heart,
Hold your way deep as roots push rocks apart
To bring the spurt of green up from the dark.
Where music thundered let the mind be still,
Where the will triumphed let there be no will,
What light revealed, now let the dark fulfill.
Here close to earth the deeper pulse is stirred,
Here where no wings rush and no sudden bird,
But only heart-beat upon beat is heard.
Here let the fiery burden be all spilled,
The passionate voice at last be calmed and stilled
And the long yearning of the blood fulfilled.
Now voyager, come home, come home to rest,
Here on the long-lost country of earth’s breast
Lay down the fiery vision and be blest, be blest.
WHEN SORROW COMES
by A. Powell Davies
“When sorrow comes, let us accept it simply, as part of life. Let the heart be open to pain; let it be stretched by it. All the evidence says that this is a better way. An open heart never grows bitter. Or if it does, it cannot remain so. In this desolate hour, there is an outcry, a clenching of hands upon emptiness, a burning pain of bereavement, a weary ache of loss. But anguish, like ecstasy, is not forever. There comes a gentleness, a returning quietness, a restoring stillness. This too is a door to life. Here also is a deepening of meaning--and it can lead to dedication, a going forward to the triumph of the soul, the conquering of the wilderness. In the process will come a deepening inward knowledge that, in the final reckoning, all is well.”
I SHARE WITH YOU
by Howard Thurman
I share with you the agony of your grief,
The anguish of your heart finds echo in your own.
I know I cannot enter all you feel
Nor bear with you the burden of your pain;
I can but offer what my love does give:
The strength of caring,
The warmth of one who seeks to understand
The silent storm-swept barrenness of so great a loss.
This I do in quiet ways,
That on your lonely path
You shall not be alone.
TO LIVE IN THIS WORLD
by Mary Oliver
“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 that your life depends on it; and when the time comes, to let it go.”
FROM “GATES OF PRAYER”
(alternating sides of the congregation read)
(LEFT) In the rising of the sun and in its going down,
we remember him.
(RIGHT) In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,
we remember him.
(L) In the opening buds and in the rebirth of spring,
we remember him.
(R) In the blueness of the sky and the warmth of summer,
we remember him.
(L) In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn,
we remember him.
(R) In the beginning of the year and when it ends,
we remember him.
(L) As long as we live, he too will live; for he is now a part of us
as we remember him.
(R) When we are weary and in need of strength,
we remember him.
(L) When we are lost and sick at heart,
we remember him.
(R) When we have joy we crave to share,
we remember him.
(L) When we have decisions that are difficult to make,
we remember him.
(R) When we have achievements that are based on his,
we remember him.
(ALL) SO LONG AS WE LIVE, HE TOO SHALL LIVE,
FOR HE IS NOW PART OF US,
AS WE REMEMBER HIM.
From "The Little Prince":
"All men have the stars, but they are not the same things for different people. You--you alone--will have the stars as no one else has them--"
"In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night . . . You--only you--will have stars that can laugh!"
"And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure . . .
"It will be as if, in place of the stars, I had given you a great number of little bells that knew how to laugh . . ."
From Tagore:
I know that this life, missing its ripeness in love, is not altogether lost.
I know that the flowers that fade in the dawn, the streams that strayed in the desert, are not altogether lost,
I know that whatever lags behind in this life laden with slowness is not altogether lost.
I know that my dreams that are still unfulfilled, and my melodies still unstruck, are clinging to some lute-strings of thine, and they are not altogether lost.
Thanks, all!
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