So today is the first day back after a restful and relaxed 12 days away from work.
I fired up my laptop on a grey and rainy Manchester morning. I opened my diary and began preparing for what is sadly, the busiest time of year for anyone working in the funeral profession.
Winter is especially hard on the most vulnerable in our society. The elderly, people with disabilities or a long-term health condition and Christmas, as we know, is extremely difficult for those with mental health challenges. I'm sad to say that there will be some who chose 2023 to be their final year on our Earthly plane. For the ones that stayed, Thank You for entrusting us with your soul for a while longer. Just keep pushing forward, a few centimetres at a time will do it. You're not a Roman throwing up roads everywhere - and as the old saying goes, even they didn't manage it in a day!
Anyway, I booked a funeral today for a gentleman who died on Christmas Day (2023). Writing his eulogy will be a reflective process as I only wrote and delivered his wife's service in January last year. For his family, Christmas and the New Year will now carry the heavy shadow of grief. However, for our late friend, he is jiving again with the love of his life. They were married for 64 years, over half a century. The merging of their lives was a blueprint for the structure that would become their family.
The human blueprint is like a personalized roadmap, a combination of our genes and life experiences coming together to create each person's distinctive journey. We are all concerned with the death of any individual for we are all members of one human community. We write blueprints every day that contribute to the lives of others, whether we set up a business that gives someone a job, or start a family of our own that grows like the branches of a tree. It may be that you shared wisdom that changed another perspective or taught a child to read. It doesn't matter what you do except to be mindful of our imprint.
The karmic circle is ever-turning. An example that affects me directly is the number of funeral celebrants around these days. It used to be one of those jobs people had never heard of. However, now there is much more choice when selecting the right person to represent your family, which can only be a good thing. Someone asked me recently if I was upset about this 'potential loss of work'. Normally, my reactive self would have screamed and shouted about how unfair it is, how saturated the market is, how hard I worked to build my business, etc. The mindful self, however, which I'm pleased to say seems to kick in as a first responder these days, simply says that the karmic circle is always turning. When I started my journey as a celebrant I undoubtedly would have taken work from other ceremony leaders who no doubt cursed the ground I walked upon. However, mindfulness has taught me that 'what was then, is now again' - and I can choose to be bitter or learn the karmic lesson and grow, or better still, help others grow in the same way.
We have to take people with us in this post-Covid world. Isolation gripped our human brothers and sisters like a vice through its hold and I can't help but think that we need genuine, social connection again more than ever. I'm as guilty as the next person. There is a sense of what's the point of everything. All that we were working towards was whipped away in an instant and reminded us how we need to find courage to rebuild and reconnect. We need to remember why we are here and that life is a gift. We need to remember that love is stronger than anything and that connection is essential to our wellbeing.
Today, as I assemble another narrative, I reflect on the fragility of life and the importance of cherishing every fleeting moment. And as the day unfolds, I find strength in the stories I've heard and the memories I've gathered. It's a privilege to be a part of these moments, to guide the process of honouring lives, and to be a conduit for healing through words.
I'm looking forward to Karma taking me around the track again this year. I hope she's kind to me.
Have a blessed 2024.
Liz Morrell 🌹 #LifeCelebration #Reflections #FuneralCelebrantJourney
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