Having some camera fun while the children play in the fountain on a hot summer day.
Last night we went to the annual Spring Grove Lantern Lighting Ceremony. I love how this event comes off. It is a time for families to gather, picnic, play games and decorate lanterns. A band is playing and at intervals they announce the names of our loved ones. As dusk settles over the cemetery the docents go around and light the candles inside the decorated lanterns. Lanterns have notes to the dead, pictures and flowers attached to them. Each lanterns is as different as the loved one, be it a husband, brother, wife, mother, child or beloved pet that has been remembered. A bagpiper begins to play, and as the first verse of Amazing Grace is heard the lanterns are floated out on the lake. It is a time of acknowledging that we all live with grief. We all have lost someone that we have loved. There is healing in the sacredness of tears and knowing that all of the crowd around you has mourned. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4
