Yesterday was the funeral for my kindred spirit.<\/p>\n
It took place at a Lutheran church. \u00a0Funerals tend to make me think two things:<\/p>\n
– how well does the person doing the service speak to the emotional needs of those present<\/p>\n
– what rituals are done to help the people process the moment (with a postscript ponderation on Wiccan and Pagan rituals around death, or lack thereof)<\/p>\n
These can be the same thing but not necessarily so. \u00a0Sometimes the service addresses the emotional component without ritual. \u00a0Sometimes the ritual is about a spiritual moment rather irrespective of the funeral.<\/p>\n
Our clergy are not trained, not in the go to school, classroom, teacher way. \u00a0Many of us find our own way (though some are lucky to have guidance!). \u00a0We aren’t given pre-set forms on how to handle death for a congregation or psychological training for handling the emotional impact. \u00a0I’m not saying we can’t and aren’t good at it, just that we don’t have a formal training system to make sure we all get there with a measured level of competence.<\/p>\n
We also don’t have pre-set rituals. \u00a0I mean, here we were, a crowd of probably 150 people lined up in the pews, sharing bound books with the order of the ceremony laid out, complete with hymn references and prayers. \u00a0Go to any Lutheran church and I’m betting it’s the same. \u00a0I also wouldn’t be surprised on similarities between different Christian sects.<\/p>\n
Again, not a bad thing that we don’t have such hidebound fixed rituals. \u00a0\ud83d\ude09 \u00a0But I wonder if we will feel a lack in future years when more of us start passing on (an interesting part of being such a young religion). \u00a0There was such comfort for people in being able to share the familiar ritual. \u00a0It was a touch-stone, a grounding, a communal centering into the moment that would lay pathways to help make things just a little easier in the days to come.<\/p>\n
I think I’d be the type to want a wake. \u00a0Sure, a eulogy would be nice, but I’d love for people to share stories about me (I don’t think there would be a lack of them), to remember me as I am in life. \u00a0I think I will contemplate the ritual part. \u00a0I may even get back to you with it.<\/p>\n
Have you thought about it? \u00a0How you want those left behind to deal with your absence? \u00a0Have you told anyone so that it may actually happen?<\/p>\n
~Abysmal Witch<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As promised, a postscript (originally I was calling this a funny postscript, but as I wrote it up I realized that it wasn’t really funny, but I still found it interesting):<\/p>\n
At 3 in the morning (why, oh why, is it always 3 in the morning for such things?) last night my cats woke me up with thunderous running on my balcony. \u00a0Since they’re only allowed out if they behave I pulled myself out of bed and called at them to come in. \u00a0They were more than a little slow at it but finally arrived and I shoved the door shut behind them.<\/p>\n
That was when I noticed what had caused the delay. \u00a0The cause of the noise outside was a big, chubby moth that they’d been playing with. \u00a0They came inside but only after they’d grabbed the moth and carried it in with them.<\/p>\n
I was heart-bursting proud at that moment that they’d listened to me. \u00a0(Following a command rather than just doing what they want was impressive for a pair of brattish cats, but doing so when there was a live creature involved was just this side of miraculous.)<\/p>\n
It also struck me as funny given that of course they would have their own way in the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday was the funeral for my kindred spirit. It took place at a Lutheran church. \u00a0Funerals tend to make me think two things: – how well does the person doing the service speak to the emotional needs of those present – what rituals are done to help the people process the moment (with a postscript … Continue reading Funereal Thoughts and a postscript<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,5,12],"tags":[49,101,230,234],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}