It is unusual for me to go to a funeral and leave the service feeling somehow 'fortified'.
The church was packed. A beautiful building, with inspiring glass windows made by Thornton Utz along with an original and moving crucifix looming overhead made me receptive and open. It is such a tragic and devastating occasion in life when an 18 year old girl dies. It is life at its most raw. It is impossible to be a mother and not feel the pain through your own heart, as it takes a village to raise a child.... and in that sense, everyone's child is our child. The heaviness is palpable. Still.
What raised my heart and inspires me today- was listening to the mother's letter she wrote to her teenage daughter a year ago. A grieving mom, stood before hundreds and with grace and love, baring her soul, and being vulnerable in reading the deep and personal correspondence. She reached out to her daughter then, with a mother's love which was so beautifully written and then in church: spoken.
What I have learned in life.... is to ALWAYS share all those positive and wonderful and loving things we feel about each other: with EACH OTHER. Our children, our friends.... even the acquaintances we meet through the day. That is a gift we give to others and to ourselves. I always say to myself "if I think a complimentary thought about someone- stranger or not: it does me no good to have those thoughts, unless they are shared with the person they are directed towards."
In this instance, at least the mom can always live with the certainty that she told her daughter what an amazing young woman she was. What a gift for all, including those of us in the church.
Afterward, my friend and I went to see the "IMAGINE" exhibit of John Lennon's drawings and lyrics. It seemed a parallel kind of expression: of life, of creativity and of the theme of love. It struck me and intrigued me that creative people are creative is a multitude of ways: creativity comes from the pores and in various forms.
What a difference a week makes. A week ago, that beautiful 18 year old girl was alive and vibrant.
Carpe Diem. Seize the day.
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