Thought for contemplation :
“They are with us still.
The lives they lived hold us steady.
Their words remind us and call us back to ourselves. Their courage and love evoke our own.”
– Rev. Kathleen McTigue
Contemplative Reading #1:
The Dark Season
We are at the threshold of the Seasons,
the doorway to the Year,
When the Veil is thin,
and time passes amorphously.
We turn inward as the Darkness beckons us.
We welcome the warmth of the fire,
contemplating the mysteries of the Unseen.
We honor the soft ache in our hearts
for those we have lost:
the people,
the dreams.
And we rest.
For rest we must, to heal.
This is the cycle of death and rebirth;
release and renewal.
We cherish this time
as the lessons it offers
penetrate our knowing.
May we breathe in wisdom
and breathe out patience.
~ Marie Porter-Manning, October 23rd, 2013
* * *
Today let us explore together
the mysteries of death,
the ways we can cope with it,
and how to live our best lives
in the face of its inevitability.
* * *
Contemplative Reading #2
“I Walk With You”
Crossing Time
Poems by Barbara Maria
When time climbs into the mother’s ancient lap
and sleeps, innocent, and open handed.
The dreamer set free in space
to touch the curling golden skin
of trees and take comfort
in the sound of water falling.
In the moment it takes to praise
the loosened light
waving through the air,
where all sides of the rising earth speak
and the borders of both worlds
melt with the ice underfoot.
Where a door slides gently open
and a forgotten voice
carries the past into the present,
changing forever the sound of the future.
Whenever you make a prayer and enter it,
anyplace
you go where the memory of now
laps up against you
like the tide,
I walk with you.
Pastoral Meditation
Let us enter into a time of meditation.
If you are among those who have lost ones you love,
and have not yourself been cared for in a manner
that has helped lead you to healing,
may you be comforted in the ways that will help you most.
For grief, be it long lasting
or in its early stages of triage,
needs attending.
Reading #3
The Triage of Grief
They sat with me for hours in this spot.
Sometimes talking.
Much of the time just being still,
gazing at Autumn’s tranquil beauty
and listening to the sounds of the Lake.
For some this may look like healing.
I know with experienced certainty it is not.
Not yet.
This, this is the perpetual triage of raw grief.
Keep the body still.
Regulate the breath.
Quiet the mind.
Assess the wound.
Allow tears, laughter or lethargy to come.
Keep in check the anger.
When there is energy, do something useful, purposeful.
Ardently cradle the sorrow when it assails.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
~ Marie Porter-Manning, October 14th, 2019
May your grief be attended to.
May you be blessed in your healing.
Songs:
“Bringing Mary Home” Originally by The Country Gentlemen, Written by Joe Kingston and Chaw Monk
This is a song that was often sung in our family at this time of year when my parents were alive. I cannot find a version the way I hear it in my memory. It appears to be of blue grass origination – but that is never the way we heard it played.
It is my mother’s voice that is the loudest memory. She would sing this while playing her guitar. Accompanied by my father &/or my brother on guitar. Often another relative, uncle Danny or George (Mom’s brothers) would join as well on their guitars. I hear other instruments, but only in my mind, not in my memory.
“Bringing Mary Home” Lyrics:
I was driving down a lonely road on a dark and stormy night
When a little girl by the road side showed up in my head lights
I stopped and she got in the back and in a shaky tone
She said my name is Mary please won’t you take me home
She must have been so frightened all alone there in the night
There was something strange about her – her face was deathly white
She sat so pale and quiet in the back seat all alone
I never will forget that night that I took Mary home
I pulled into the driveway where she told me to go
Got out to help her from the car and opened up the door
But I just could not believe my eyes the back seat was bare
I looked all around the car but Mary wasn’t there
A light shown from the porch – a woman opened up the door
I asked about the little girl that I was looking for
The lady gently smiled and she brushed a tear away
She said it sure was nice of you to go out of your way
But thirteen years ago tonight in a wreck just down the road
Our darling Mary lost her life and we still miss her so
I thank you for your trouble and the kindness you have shown
You’re the thirteenth one who’s been here bringing Mary home
You’re the thirteenth one who’s been here bringing Mary home
Written by Chaw Mank, Joe Kingston, John Duffy • Copyright © BMG Rights Management US, LLC, Carlin America Inc
Red Sovine – Bringing Mary Home
Country Gentlemen – Bringing Mary Home
Eric Clapton – Tears In Heaven
Memories by Maroon 5
Dani and Lizzy – Dancing in the Sky
DISCUSS VARIOUS BELIEFS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE DIE…
ADDITIONAL EXCERPTS AND THOUGHTS FROM Twinkle’s SERMON:
“You, having existed, changed everything.
You, having died, changed everything.
And somehow life moves onward.”
“And, when we lose many people,
the recommendation of “move on” may seem as a sanity-saving measure.
I promise you it is not.
Moving on is impossible. Yet,
Moving forward is necessary.
Author, Nora McInerny speaks poignantly
and pointedly to this in her much acclaimed TED Talk,
‘We Don’t ‘Move on’ from Grief. We Move Forward with It.’”
“Dianalee Velie, Poet Laurette of Newbury, New Hampshire,
in her poem entitled, “Laughter,”
movingly describes the sensation of joy and laughter
the first times it occurs amid deep grief as something,
‘alien, at first, a mysterious sound we had forgotten.’
Something we can be caught off guard by,
even embarrassed about when it bubbles up.
‘How can joy be excused
when it filters through our gallowed gazes?’
she questions, as many of us have questioned
while grieving.”
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
Story for All Ages / Children’s Message
Before the Beginning, A Child’s First Book of the Great Story
By JD Stillwater