“Give me golf clubs, fresh air and a beautiful partner, and you can keep the clubs and the fresh air.” Jack Benny
It’s the third week of October and I’m sitting outside on a 75° day, something I hadn’t expected to do again until Spring. Lucky us, getting a couple more days o’ fresh air and warm temperatures.
I just saw the website of a funeral home that was advertising funeral services on the beach. Hello, awesome idea! Thank you, forward-thinking funeral home!
One of my favorite “make it your own” goodbye celebration ideas is about place. If you want to spend a couple of hours in a funeral home, you should do that. It’s expected, it’s traditional, and it might just be the familiar comfort you need most.
But if you don’t need or want that, by golly—consider a change of scenery. Consider the breath of fresh air it might be. For someone who was (or is) an outdoors lover, this is so befitting.
This funeral home pictured a beach setup with folding chairs lined up nicely in the sand, a small altar-type table with the ocean as a backdrop, candles all around, photos on easels, and people dressed in comfortable clothing. Actually, it wasn’t unlike a small wedding on the beach!
Aha! Not awkward like But that’s a happy occasion and this is sad. More like This is life… the beauty of life at any stage, even the ending, deserves beautiful surroundings. And is not nature often the perfect surroundings?
There’s so many variables in funeral rituals: whether or not there’s a viewing, a casket, an urn, a prescribed religious ceremony with a clergy person, etc. So do what you need to do for all the right reasons, and if in there there’s also some desire for fresh air, don’t dismiss it! Whether it’s the beach or a clearing in the woods, sunrise or sunset anywhere, on the banks of a lake, on a boat, on a ski slope, poolside, or in your own backyard.
Place is so important. It can make all the difference in the moment and in the memories. GO ALL OUT when saying goodbye to someone. If fresh air is calling you, get thee outdoors!