Spirit of spring and new life, spirit of decay and death,
We turn to your wisdom and strength as we seek to live lives of meaning and love.
The cycle of life is powerful. Everything that lives, dies. Everything that dies has lived. There is no escaping this cycle. What then, can we learn from its power?
The leaves that we put away in the fall are now compost, fertilizing the soil as we prepare to till the garden for this year’s plantings.
That harbinger of spring, the crocus, brings such delight, and lasts but for a moment. Then it's gone, making way for the abundance of green and color that spring will bring.
When one who was beloved dies, we cry. We mourn. We lament. And we carry them on in our hearts, seeking to live as they inspired us to live. As a child grows, we marvel at their unfolding into their own unique self.
These lives we live hold so much beauty and so much pain. And we, like each of our ancestors across the millennia, seek to live them fully.
We seek Love.
We seek to appreciate beauty.
We seek solace and healing.
We seek to hold “fast to the core goodness of this world” and to amplify its abundance.
We seek one another – for no one can do this alone.
Now, in the company of many, let us enter a time of silence. May this silence be a time to honor that which your heart seeks.

Quote is from Saving Paradise by Rebecca Ann Parker and Rita Nakashima Brock, p.53.