Saturday, January 28, 2012

Celebrating Life

We attended a memorial service today. Doris was 91-years-old and had been ready to close her eyes and leave this world for some time. When I took this photo she was in a wheelchair.

I'm always relieved at a service when people get up to share memories and stories. It is a time of shared laughter, a time to celebrate a life well-lived.  On cue today, the stories were backed up with a wonderful assortment of photographs projected onto large screens.  Visually, we were carried through Doris's life as a vivacious dark-haired young woman, a glowing bride, an excited new mother and a grandmother. You could see her gradually age, gain some weight, get grayer and grayer, then lose the weight. It's a cycle even the most beautiful and rich people on earth cannot avoid. We all are part of this circle of life.

The reception after the funeral is when the emotions really flow for me because that is when the love can really flow. People hug and laugh together. Babies are passed around for others to hold. Food is shared. Looking around the room at people moving from table to table, wanting to talk, wanting to reach out--I could feel the love and I felt blessed to be a small part of that.

Thank you Doris--and family. I'm so very grateful that we somehow found each other in this circle of life.

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