Sunday, February 10, 2008

Funeral at Highwater Church Tomorrow

She lived going on the century mark. On a cold and snowy Monday the spouse of a cousin will be remembered at Highwater Church just a few miles from the Jeffers Petroglyphs.

She joins the host of people who have lived all or part of their lives on the quartzite ridge that hosted glaciers not so long ago. A few thousand years is not much in geological time. Going on a hundred years is remarkable for a person with a biological time clock.

Tomorrow the family will gather to give thanks for a life well lived. At a moment in time every person present will be aware of the brief scale to time that we humans inhabit. The religious ritual will offer dignity and comfort to those who live on for now.

My guess is that the near by petroglyphs were partially religious in nature. Perhaps they were part of a ritual that marked the lives of individuals and announced a sense of meaning that escapes the bounds of historical time.

Highwater Church will for an hour or so be inhabited by family and friends who live in time. In that hour of worship they will glimpse the infinite landscape of the universe. The Lord Gives. The Lord Takes. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

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