Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Funerals

Last year I had a lot of funerals, personally and professionally. Both my parents died, and then I buried a number of church members. Today I will have my second funeral of the year. The first one was on Sunday. I didn't realize I hadn't had any until I went to the funeral folder on my computer-- I hadn't even started a file for 2010. Not only are these the first funerals, both have been for nonmembers. Two nonmember funerals in a year is unusual, let alone two in less than a week.
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What isn't unusual is that I am adding funerals to one of the busiest weeks of the year. This Sunday is the Big Event. We'll have several hundred guests here for that. For me it is an honor to do funerals. It is a blessing to walk with a family as they journey through their grief. It is a bit more challenging, though, when I don't know the individual. Each funeral I do is very personal, and it's difficult to personalize the funeral of someone I don't know (or didn't know well.)
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Between the Big Event and the funerals, I'm not having much time to do the things that need to be done for the move. I realized yesterday that my commitments over the next month are growing rapidly, and it's going to become more challenging to carve out the space to do the sorting and packing that needs to be done. It will get done. A month from now I will be trying to figure out where to put everything in our new home. I'm looking forward to that challenge.

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