I was reading a poem penned by Henry Scott Holland (1847 – 1918, Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford) which is well worth sharing. This, and my thoughts on what he has written, are likely to be suggestions for inclusions into any future funerary services I am called on to perform.

Death Is Nothing At All – Henry Scott Holland

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.

All is well.

My thoughts…

To understand the divine, the way of all life, nature itself, is to look upon this and know it is true. Many talk about the veil between life and death, but often this is just talk. So few realise it is not so much a metaphor, not allegorical, but a simple description of an only slightly more complex process.

With only a slight twisting of space time we step from this body into the ether, through the veil that blinds our human eyes. We move just out of sight of the living, a step closer to the divine, and for us, all is well.

There is loss for those that remain behind, but for those that understand, this passes quickly. They have departed, but they are not gone, they are just beyond the veil, a very thin veil that separates here from there, just a twist and a short step to the side from where we are now.