It is funny how the passing of a loved one always gets us thinking about our own mortality until several weeks or months have gone by and we just forget about it until the next passing of a loved one.

I have just lost another brother, younger than me and so full of life even though he suffered from MS which had ravaged his body but not his mind. He still had a sense of humor and loved to laugh up until the very end.

Tomorrow we celebrate his passing with my sister-in-law who wants to have all of us write a note to him and then release it on balloons to carry them up to him. Although he is gone physically he is still with us everyday in our hearts and our minds.

We all have special prayers that we usually rely on when a loved one passes and mine comes from a book written by Brooke Medicine Eagle and is a Native American Prayer. Here it is:

Native American Prayer 

Don’t stand at my grave and weep

For I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond’s glint on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn’s rain.

When you awaken in morning’s hush,

I am the swift uplifting rush

of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry.

I am not there; I did not die.

Rest in Peace my brother!