"The Gifts of Death"
A Responsive Reading in Celebration of Deathby Connie Barlow (March 2005)
1. Without the death of stars, there would be no planets and no life.
2. Without the death of creatures, there would be no evolution.
1. Without the death of elders, there would be no room for children.2. Without the death of fetal cells, we would all be spheres.
1. Without the death of neurons, wisdom and creativity would not blossom.2. Without the death of cells in woody plants, there would be no trees.
1. Without the death of forests by Ice Age advance, there would be no northern lakes.2. Without the death of mountains, there would be no sand or soil.
1. Without the death of plants and animals, there would be no food.2. Without the death of old ways of thinking, there would be no room for the new.
1. Without death, there would be no ancestors.2. Without death, time would not be precious.
ALL: What, then, are the gifts of death?
1. The gifts of death are Mars and Mercury, Saturn and Earth.2. The gifts of death are the atoms of stardust within our bodies.
1. The gifts of death are the splendors of shape and form and color.2. The gifts of death are diversity, the immense journey of life.
1. The gifts of death are woodlands and soils, ponds and lakes.2. The gifts of death are food: the sustenance of life.
1. The gifts of death are seeing, hearing, feeling — deeply feeling.2. The gifts of death are wisdom, creativity, and the flow of cultural change.
1. The gifts of death are the urgency to act, the desire to fully be and become.2. The gifts of death are joy and sorrow, laughter and tears.
ALL: The gifts of death are lives that are fully and exuberantly lived, and then graciously and gratefully given up, for now and forevermore. Amen
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