death
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All Saints and All Souls Experiences Around the Table and in the Cemetery
There was a cemetery that I used to walk through looking at tombstones when I was a pastor in Maine. A friend showed it to me. She walked her dog there but now I run through cemeteries chasing my children… Continue reading
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Table Prayers for Families for All Saints and All Souls
I’ve been working on a couple little projects as All Saints and All Souls approach and was startled to discover that there are very few resources for these particular days for families. The particular resource I’m creating for families is… Continue reading
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Pandemic Prayers for Proper 19
Though I didn’t do anything with the text last week, I’m still thinking about the question Kathryn Matthews posed in her weekly musings in the United Church of Christ’s Sermon Seeds about the grieving parents in the Passover story. How… Continue reading
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Tell the Children
I sat there with my daughter in my lap turning the pages. Matt de la Pena’s book Love was sent to me by my cousin. She said it reminded her of me. So my heart was already in my throat… Continue reading
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A Simple Graveside Ritual
Graveside services are often very, very short. Some simple prayers are repeated by the presiding minister. Tears are shed, but there isn’t much else for the grieving family to do. There is nothing asked of them. There’s no action for… Continue reading
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Ash Wednesday
My sister died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It’s a fact that has haunted these first few months of my own daughter’s life. She died before I was born but the memory is alive. I wake to hear my little… Continue reading
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Half-Baked Ideas for All Saints Day
On Sunday, I went to church. I sat in the pews to worship. But, before worship even began, there was a wave of sadness that fell over that gathering of God’s people. There were words of thanks offered, gratitude for… Continue reading
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Letters to Heaven
Every year, as January comes to a close and the calendar turns to February, I start to wonder about what I’ll say to her this year. I wonder about what I would want her to know about this year and who I… Continue reading
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The Things They Carried
Just the other day, I heard a story on National Public Radio about the objects that are being collected and preserved after September 11, 2001. Though I am a New Yorker, I wasn’t even in the country on that terrible day. I… Continue reading
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Hang on to Each Other
I can’t quite stop myself from watching this video of the Vice President exposing his grief so tenderly and so honestly. I’ve watched it again and again and again. He’s talking to people who know grief. You can hear it in their… Continue reading
Cooking with Elsa 