A Shovel Full of Earth

Melitta Haslund, in “A Shovel Full of Earth.” Published in For All That Is Our Life, edited by Helen and Eugene Pickett (Skinner House, 2005). Used with permission.

A few shovel fulls
of earth
await humbly.
Dark brown as only
earth can be—
dug from the fragrant depths.

How shall we live
This life?
And isn’t it grander
than this in the end?

No—the splendor
is right here,
in the dirt,
in the soil
that can grow
all we need
miraculously
and without fanfare.
With or without us,
it nourishes life
verdantly.

And so
I shall go, in time, as all
go
and greet
this sustaining
earth
with gratitude
and pray I
am worthy
and have served
Her well.

Find Out More

These resources were also recommended in earlier workshops:

Download the Conversation Starter Kit from the Conversation Project for help in talking with loved ones about end-of-life issues.
Six Feet Under, HBO dramatic comedy series created and produced by Alan Ball. It features a California family who own and operate a funeral home. Many public libraries have the DVDs.
Love and Death: My Journey through the Valley of the Shadow was the last book written by Unitarian Universalist minister Forrest Church (Beacon, 2009).