Earth to earth...

On Saturday, July 9, friends and family will gather with me in a small country cemetery for the interment of the ashes of my mother, who died November 14, 2010 and my father, who died January 15, 2011. With the scent of the freshly-mown natural prairie grass in our nostrils, and the sound of the wind in the evergreen trees in our ears, surrounded by the graves of generations of our families, we will listen to the words of comfort spoken by a friend of mine and I’ll sing one more time for my Mum and Dad.

My paternal great-grandparents came from England in 1880, and made their way west to settle in the area I still think of as Home in 1882, when my grandfather was four years old. Our family were some of the first European settlers in the area. My great-grandmother is buried in that little cemetery (after her death, my great-grandfather returned to England, and he is buried there). My grandparents are buried there, and now my parents will be — and some day my pottery urn, lovingly handcrafted by the same artist friend who made Mum’s and Dad’s urns, will be laid to rest next to those of my parents. The cemetery looks toward the farm where I grew up — the land that was our land is just across the narrow dirt road. The farmland directly east of the cemetery is the piece of land that Dad loved best on earth. That soil is a part of us, and now Mum and Dad will become a part of it. Earth to earth…

On Saturday afternoon, as we stand together in that cemetery that holds so many of the friends and family I have loved, I will sing one of my hymns, which begins

Like a crocus on the prairie,
Like a rose in midst of thorn,
Hope can flower in the desert,
Help us bear what must be borne.

I am so grateful for that sure and steadfast hope, and I am grateful for the ability to sing in spite of grief, for in music there is connection, and there is healing.

In words that I used in the memorial card at Dad’s service in January –

May we be granted the grace and strength
to fully live our lives til the end of our days,
and then take flight to our next destination with joy.