The service for Merv this afternoon (please read the post below first if the name is immediately unfamiliar) was very well attended and beautifully done.
Just as with my other co-worker four months ago, I felt very little walking by the casket. The inhumanly made-up mortal remains of both of those good men bore almost no resemblance to the people I knew. They were simply cast-off vessels for which the previous residents had no further use. There was absolutely no LIFE left in them.
One striking difference I did note, for myself at least, was that given the 40 year age difference between Merv and Dean, who passed away at the end of March, was that today's service was for a man who, though still cut too short, had lived a good, full life. Dean's was more for a young man not granted the opportunity to live that same fullness. His was no more tragic for that fact, but left me with a much greater sense of lost potential.
There was a blessing on the back of the memorial pamphlet that I brought home with me today. It was quite touching, so I thought I'd share it here:
An Old Irish Blessing
May the blessing of the light be on you, light without and light within. May the blessed sunlight shine upon you and warm your heart till it glows like a great peat fire, so that the stranger may come and warm himself at it, and also a friend. And may the light shine out of the eyes of you, like a candle set in the window of a house, bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm. And may the blessing of the rain be on you -- the soft sweet rain. May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up, and shed their sweetness on the air. And may the blessing of the great rains be on you, may they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean, and leave there many a shining pool where the blue heaven shines, and sometimes a star. And may the blessing of the earth be on you -- the great round earth; may you ever have a kindly greeting for them you pass as you're going along the roads. May the earth be soft under you when you rest out upon it, tired at the end of a day, and may it rest easy over you when, at the last, you lie out under it. May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be off from under it quickly, and up and off, and on its way to God. And now may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly.
What a beautiful blessing. So simple and fitting. Yup, I do like that one. Tina
Posted by: Tina | Monday, 04 July 2005 at 11:22 PM