A Day To Remember

MON., DEC. 9, 1991, 6:48 AM
FARM, STUDY

A visit yesterday to a friend of yours… and Mine… reminded you yet again that memory may well diminish in old age. This is not all bad, for one may cease to remember events and conditions that were painful, sad, humiliating. The loss of memory may clear out such memories, and present life shall not be hampered by them.

It is sad, however, when the recollection of positive, life-enhancing events fades, for such remembrances give a mellowness to old age, particularly when the pains of day-to-day life seem to increase. The best way to retain these positive memories is to tell of the event, often. Old people do this, and it can be tiresome to the young… to hear stories over again… but it is the best means of retaining the memory, in detail.

The early accounts in Genesis… of My creation of the earth and of humans (in two different ways) and of the flood… these tales were told and retold until they finally were written down. The written account seems solid (and encourages affirmations of “The Bible says…”), but it is based on centuries of faithful story-telling, based, fundamentally, in accurate memories.

This is one of your important days to remember. You have told the story often, and you wrote it down shortly after it happened, so that it would not be forgotten. Fifteen years is not a long time, but many other events of that time past are not remembered clearly. You don’t remember the details of the births of each of your sons, partly because you haven’t retold these stories often. But you remember Peter’s death and especially this day, the burial.

That December the 9th, fifteen years ago, was bright, sunny, and cold. This one is cloudy, damp, and warm. There was much to do that day, for the body of your fourth son was to be put into the ground, the special ground of your Farm. You would commit his body to become an active part of a beautiful hillside. The box in which he lay was not made to resist the change back to soil. The elements of his body, Stash’s body, the straw, and the casket would return to nourish the growing trees… even an occasional fern.

You knew that his spirit had been freed as his body ceased, suddenly, to function. You continue also to remember the evidences of his spirit in the months and years after it left his body. Some souls sleep after death, but Peter’s was as active as his body was the last time you saw him. He used good judgment in letting you know of his continuing life. His ways were imaginative yet believable. There were a few others of which you were not aware, but he gave you enough evidence that spirit continues on after the body is dead.

Continue to recall the details of the day, because it was an important commitment. His body was there before you, in the heaviness of his manliness… and of death. He was dressed in an appropriate way. His dog was upon his chest. The rope, which symbolized one important prowess of his, was around him, as were the ferns, the last green things of the warm season past.

There are advantages to cremation, and I have no objection to this means of body disposal. It certainly is better than burial in an expensive casket made of materials that would be of more use in life. Yet it was not necessary for Peter. There was a hillside of which he would become a part, in a grave dug by his wrestling team friends. You had the last look at this son, who had given you much pleasure and much pain. And then the lid was closed and nailed shut… and the procession began. It was a fine burial, with many helping hands to fill in the grave, with affirmations, Scripture, and prayers that helped to establish that as a special place – Peter’s Park.