Light the chalice and share these words from Margaret Mead and Rhoda Metraux:
Mourning has become unfashionable in the United States. The bereaved are supposed to pull themselves together as quickly as possible and to reweave the torn fabric of life…We do not allow…for the weeks and months during which a loss is realized. [mourning]—a beautiful word that suggests the transmutation of the strange into something that is one’s own.
Call attention to the covenant you have posted and ask participants to reaffirm their willingness to let it guide your time together.
