A Smattering of Life Events

November 12, 2022

Eulogy (Our Outfit of Grief)

Today, we wear our outfit of grief.

And we’ll wear it again tomorrow.
And perhaps the next day.
Maybe the day after.

At some point, we will wake,
we’ll approach the closet;
we’ll reach out for the outfit of grief.

And we’ll reach past it.
For the outfit of joy
or hope
or love.

As we pull on the pants
and button the shirt
and pull on the jacket
we’ll remember a day
we wore this outfit
and our loved one
was with us.

They were wearing their own outfit
of joy or hope or love.

And they were stylin'!

On that day we looked
forward to what came next.
We smiled and laughed.
We joked.
We lived.

And wearing that outfit again
we’ll step out into the day
and create a new life
full of moments to look forward to.

After all…

The sun rises in the East
and God is good.

Thank you for being here,

Let that joy ring into the future.
Let it ring into the past.

Let that ringing last…
And when at last the sound is passed.

Don’t sob… or gasp.
There’s no need.

This moment right now
surrounded by the people who most love us
and the people we most love…
This moment is the creation of the bell.

So that when we are sad, tired, weary, lonely…
We have but to reach out and ring the bell.
And there it will be… echoing in that future.

For now just pause and visualize:

Oh, the places we’ll go…
bbbbbbbbbbbrrrrrnnnnnggggg

In all of those futures,
that is the bell echoing
from this particular past.

Each and every moment is an honor and a privilege,
and this one is special.

Thank you for joining us here.
Thank you for being a part of this beautiful moment in our life together.

You’re all rooting for us.
You all love us.

Here’s to us, and here’s to you.