Celebration of Life
January 28, 2000 - January 28, 2000
The ache of grief, reverberates through our bones, through our entire beings. We mourn, not in general, but in particular. Because love, after all, is in the details. We mourn, not only for these beautiful babies, Hanna and Summer, but we mourn the loss of a future with them. This grief will be forever with us.
One challenge of suffering loss, is to use it, to reimagine hope, for a new future. We can both acknowledge that ‘that will never be’, and also imagine what might come next.
As Jesus said, in Matthew 5:4: “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.”
Blessed are you, dear souls, sitting among the shards of what could have been.
Blessed are you, letting your eyes look around, remembering all the hope.
All the love.
All the beauty.
Blessed are you, letting the tears flow.
Letting the anger speak.
Blessed are you, for letting this loss speak all its terrible truth to your souls.
Blessed are you, for remaining in grief’s cold winter for as long as it takes, that mourning might be to your hearts, the gentlest springtime.
Blessed are you, for being open to new beauty, grace, and meaning.
Not to replace the loss and grief, but to forge a new path forward, with it.
Dear Lord, We humbly ask that You will grant eternal rest to our girls, Hanna and Summer.
Let your perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls rest in peach, through God’s mercy.
Amen
Summer & Hanna are memorialized under a Japanese Maple Tree located at the coordinates listed below within Life Forest.
43.12285 , -71.93818