Psalm to My Beloved

I have opened unto you, the fate of my being
And like a tide, you have flowed into me.
 
All the channels of my spirit and the recesses of my soul
Are grown sweet with your presence
 
You have brought me the calm of great tranquil waters
And the quiet of summer seas
 
Your hands are filled with peace as the Moon tide

Is filled with light
 
About your head is bound the eternal quiet of the stars
And in your heart dwells the gentleness of dusk
 
I am clear and still
 
For I have opened unto you the wide gates of my being
And like a tide, you have flowed into me.
 
-- Adapted with abandon from Eunice Tietjens by Kim Farley

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Living MemorialAmy CunninghamBefore Death
Death is Just Another Path

Pippin said: ‘I didn't think it would end this way.’
‘End?’ said Gandalf. ‘No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path... one that we
all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back,
And all turns to silver glass...
And then you see it.’
‘What?’ Said Pippin, ‘Gandalf?... See what?
‘ White shores... and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.’
‘Well,’ said Pippin smiling, ‘that isn't so bad.’
‘No’... replied Gandalf softly. ‘No it isn't.’
-- JRR Tolkein

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Group ReadinessAmy CunninghamBefore Death
Invocation Prayer

I give thanks to those that I am about to invite!
I ask that this room, this home or building and the grounds become a sacred space.
I invite the Divine to be present.
I invite Great Spirit, Mother Father God to be present.
I invite Great Mystery to be present.
I invite the Compassionate and loving Ancestors to be present and I give thanks to them,
because without them we couldn't be here.
I invite the Great Teachers and Masters to be present, especially those that we have
connections to and affiliations with.
I invite the Angels, the great beings of light, especially the Archangels, the guardian angels
angels of love and the angels of healing.
I invite the Power Animals, the Totems, and I give thanks to them for loaning their power, their
qualities, their protection and for relationship.
I invite the Healing Spirits of all the realms and give thanks for the healing that I know is going
to happen.
I invite the Elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Sacred Space...and I ask for a balancing and
harmonizing of the Elements.
I invite the Compassionate Spirits and Devas.
I Invite the Earth, the Sun and the Moon.
I give thanks to the Stars and the Compassionate Star People.
I invite the Directions and the Guardians of the Directions
I invite the Four Great Winds.
I give thanks to the Great Spirits of the Land and I ask to be in harmony with you and to prosper
here.

I give thanks to the Spirits of this place for allowing this work and this prayer to happen here in
a good way.
And as always, I give thanks in advance for the blessings that I know will happen here.
Thank you!


-- Betsy Bergstrom
 

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Group ReadinessAmy CunninghamBefore Death
The Trees

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,

Their greenness is a kind of grief.
 
Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too.
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.
 
Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.


-- Philip Larkin
 

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Group Readiness, BurialAmy CunninghamBefore Death, Final Resting Place
On Death

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

-- Kahlil Gibran

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Ash Scattering, Burial, Group Readiness, Immediately After Death, Physical GatheringAmy CunninghamAt Death, Dying, Final Resting Place
i thank You God for this amazing day

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-- e.e. cummings

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Burial, Ash Scattering, Physical GatheringAmy CunninghamBefore Death, Final Resting Place
Our Lives Matter


We come together from the diversity of our grieving,
to gather in the warmth of this community
giving stubborn witness to our belief that
in times of sadness, there is room for laughter.
In times of darkness, there always will be light.
May we hold fast to the conviction
that what we do with our lives matters
and that a caring world is possible after all.

-- M. Maureen Killoran

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Group Readiness, Immediately After DeathAmy CunninghamAt Death
Mystery of Life

Before the sublime mystery of life and spirit,
the mystery of infinite space
and endless time, we stand in reverent awe . . .
This much we know:
we are at least one phase of the immortality of life.
The mighty stream of life flows on, and, in this mighty stream,
we too flow on . . .
not lost . . . but each eternally significant.
For this I feel: The spirit never betrays the person
who trusts it.
Physical life may be defeated but life goes on;
character survives,
goodness lives and love is immortal.

-- Robert G. Ingersoll

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Group Readiness, Immediately After Death, Physical Gathering, InurnmentAmy CunninghamAt Death, First Anniversary, Final Resting Place
At a Grave

They who stand with breaking hearts around this [little] grave, need have no fear. The larger and the nobler faith in all that is, and is to be, tells us that death, even at its worst, is only perfect rest. We know that through the common wants of life—the needs and duties of each hour—their grief will lessen day by day, until at last this grave will be to them a place of rest and peace—almost of joy. There is for them this consolation: The dead do not suffer. If they live again, their lives will surely be as good as ours. We have no fear. We are all children of the same mother, and the same fate awaits us all. We, too, have our religion [belief], and it is this:
Help for the living—Hope for the dead.

-- Robert G. Ingersoll, adapted

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Burial, Physical Gathering, InurnmentAmy CunninghamFinal Resting Place, First Anniversary
As Sometimes in a Dead One's Face

As sometimes in a dead one's face,
To those that watch it move and more,
A likeness, hardly seen before,
Comes out—to someone of the race.

So, dearest, now thy brows are cold,
I see thee what thou art, and know
Thy likeness to the wise below,
Thy kindred with the great of old.

But there is more than I can see,
And what I see I leave unsaid,
Nor speak it, knowing Death has made
All darkness beautiful with thee.

-- Lord Alfred Tennyson

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Immediately After DeathAmy CunninghamAt Death
Evening


The snail gives off stillness.
The weed is blessed.
At the end of a long day
The man finds joy, the water peace.

Let all be simple. Let all stand still
Without a final direction.
That which brings you into the world
To take you away at death
Is one and the same;
The shadow long and pointy
Is its church.

At night some understand what the grass says.
The grass knows a word or two.
It is not much. It repeats the same word
Again and again, but not too loudly.

-- Charles Simic
 

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BurialAmy CunninghamFinal Resting Place
Field Bling

Nights when it’s warm
and no one is watching,
I walk to the edge
of the road and stare
at all the fireflies.
I squint and pretend
they’re hallucinations,
bright made-up waves
of the brain.
I call them,
field bling.
I call them,
fancy creepies.
It’s been a long time
since I’ve wanted to die,
it makes me feel
like taking off
my skin suit
and seeing how
my light flies all
on its own, neon
and bouncy like a
wannabe star.


-- Ada Limon

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Living MemorialAmy CunninghamBefore Death
Requiem

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you, 'grave for me:
Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

-- Robert Louis Stevenson

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BurialAmy CunninghamFinal Resting Place
Come to the Meadow to Visit Me

Come to the meadow to visit me
Down by the roots of a tree
Waste not your tears on the stone cold graves
Water a flower for me
Give me to the earth when my winter comes
Bury me deep in the ground
Mark not my place with statues or caves
Find me where life can be found
Visit a garden on warm, summer days
Keep company with blossoms and bees
Remember my heart blooms forever in yours
Take comfort from shushing shade trees
Let autumn surround you with life and the living
Birdsong and aging green leaves
Look up at the sky, give thanks for sun and rain
When you think of me, smile more than grieve
Come to the forest to visit me
Down by the roots of a tree
Live every day that is given to you
Water a new flower for me.

-- adapted from a poem by Lurana Brown


 

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BurialAmy CunninghamFinal Resting Place
Into the Darkness


Into the darkness and warmth of the earth
We lay you down
Into the sadness and smiles of our memories
We lay you down
Into the cycle of living and dying and rising again
We lay you down
May you rest in peace, in fulfilment, in loving
May you run straight home in Earth’s embrace

-- Ruth Burgess

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BurialAmy CunninghamFinal Resting Place
Sono's Death Poem

 

Don’t just stand there with your hair turning gray,
Soon enough the seas will sink your little island
So while there is still the illusion of time,
Set out for another shore.
No sense packing a bag.
You won’t be able to lift it into your boat.
Give away all your collections.
Take only new seeds and an old stick.
Send out some prayers on the wind before you sail.
Don’t be afraid.
Someone knows you’re coming.
An extra fish has been salted.

-- Mona Santacroce

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Living MemorialAmy CunninghamBefore Death
Prayer of Passing

Know that everything you do and everything you have done has been a contribution to The Whole. Bless-ed be who you are.

When the time comes for your Eternal Spirit to leave this Earthly body …

Your wings will unfurl, the breath of the wind will uplift you, and you will be born anew without effort. For where you are going there is no pain, no fear, no heartache. There is only love.

You will breathe one last breath while your spirit occupies your physical body, and with the next in-breath you will breathe a breath of great Light. You will feel more love than you have known for a long, long time. For you are going Home.

In the turning of the seasons, the love within your heart, the love of your being has expanded into fullness and now settles in peace to rest.

In the dawn of ages, your spirit has celebrated your essence which, once again, is to be made new.

In the flowing of the rivers, know beyond a doubt of doubts the truth that your spirit is truly one with the Divine Whole.

One Heart … One Mind … One Spirit … One.

You are the blessing. You are the peace. You are the love.

You are the Light within the holiness.

You are the Flight within the freedom.

You are the Essence in the center of the blossom.

This is who you are, and much, much more.

Much, much more.

-- Anara Solray
Healing Potentials Unlimited, Copyright 1999

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At The Bedside, Living MemorialAmy CunninghamBefore Death, Dying
That Fateful Day

On that fatal day when my casket rolls along

Do not think my heart is in this world.

Do not cry, do not cry with anguished moans,

For that is a pit a demon has dug, and only that is sad.

When you see my procession, don't cry, "Gone, gone!"

For me it is a time of meeting and reunion.

As you lower me into the grave, don't say, "So long."

The grave is a veil before the gathering of paradise.

When you see that lowering down, consider a rising.

What harm is there in the setting of a sun or moon?

What seems a setting to you is a dawning.

Though it may seem a prison,

This vault releases the soul.

What seed goes into the earth and does not grow?

Why are you doubting this human seed?

What bucket goes down and does not come up full?

Why should the Joseph of the spirit resent the well?

Close your mouth on this side and open it beyond,

For in the nowhere air will be your song.

-- Jelal ad-Din Rumi

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Living MemorialAmy CunninghamBefore Death
One Night When You Were Just a Star

One night when you were just a star,
someone hung every hope, every wish, every dream,
they ever had from your limbs,
so if you ever feel inferior,
ever start to doubt your beauty or brilliance just remember:
you have constellations lining the cathedral walls of your chest,
a moon for a heart
and the sunlight pouring through your skin,
you are a symphony of stardust
and you were born to shine.

-- Tyler Kent White

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Living MemorialAmy CunninghamBefore Death