On 12/30/06, Iris McGinnis wrote (most eloquently):
didn't feel right to responding to this on the blog comments
there is no consolation for losing a beloved.
every day i ask myself why was it him and not me.
i am not any ones light.
i am not any ones future.
why is life so cruel?
I,
If you are in a space in which your questions are rhetorical then PLEASE disregard my responses.
There are few things more unwelcome than Philosophy tromping through the midst of the body's grief.
At the moment these questions are not rhetorical for me. Thus, the following responses.
Maybe we hold a bit of each others' light and future? Certainly, you hold a bit of mine.
My dreams will not come anywhere near true without the people I love because they are at least in part defined by them. I dream of family, community, and guardianship of peace. Each of these will be real at the point that other people in my sphere of influence are participating and profoundly getting what they need. Then we may point and say that we have achieved some measure of success. When I notice that I am holding some "light" (with so many meanings) for someone (including myself) I certainly feel called to take the parts of others' light I hold more seriously.
As for the future, if all we can imagine as important can end without further comment at any time then the choices we make are probably irrelevant and essential at the same time. Irrelevance allows a certain freedom of movement. The samurai keeps his own death ever before him in order to be able to move freely into and out of battle - neither of which Matters. Both are simply necessary and can reveal beauty and give weight and context to life. This is the essential part. My life needs context and depth (or meaning, if you prefer). This is unlikely to have consequences for or in relation to Life but is damned important to me.
If I'm serious about withdrawing my projections of Justice (and all other Big Ideas) as divine or universal but simply native to the human scope, then who am I to imagine that Life is cruel? Cruelty requires disposition, attention toward suffering inflicted by something a human could recognize as consciousness. Also it requires a governing standard against which behavior may be compared and found wanting. If there is any consciousness (as we understand the term) attached to our abstractions, gods like God and Life, then to imagine that Life would intend anything toward me is outright hubris. People write plays, or used to (unless you are Sondheim or Mamet), about such things.
In short, His Eye is not on the sparrow. My eye is on the sparrow. And the sparrow may end up as a very minor part of my lunch, or as a reminder of the beauty and brevity of existence, or as anything else my ravenously transformative metaphor-making consciousness needs at the moment. This may seem cruel to me but there is no court of Cosmic standards to which I may make an appeal, compare myself to the sparrow, and reach a desirable resolution of Brandon v Life.
If working conclusions are required:
- All the more reason to work toward compassion here so justice becomes more frequent and basic and peace becomes more likely and widespread.
- specifically not because a God would have it so, but because I want it and you want it, and because God may be declared dead when life appears cruel and all bets are suddenly off.
- You and I are much harder to get rid of.
- Or not.
- Depending on how you look at it.
Labels: budo, cruelty, death, God, gods, life, philosophy
| posted by Unknown @ 12/30/2006 02:17:00 PM
Impersonal Ad:
Man, nearing 40, mourning, given to focus on navel and gaze into reflective pools, ready for long term belligerent relationship with former self. Interested external parties need not apply. | posted by Unknown @ 12/30/2006 03:07:00 AM
Man, nearing 40, mourning, given to focus on navel and gaze into reflective pools, ready for long term belligerent relationship with former self. Interested external parties need not apply. | posted by Unknown @ 12/30/2006 03:07:00 AM
Surreal, or the Outskirts of the Real?
It's a beautiful day outside in Medford, OR.
Mom (Paula Craig) and I drove half an hour north to Grant's Pass (Grant's Pants) to see beloved cousins (only neice to my Grandfather Paul) Gene and Betty (Ann) Meier. She is struggling with bronchitis and he has new (two weeks) hearing aids, and both are rather surprised to discover themselves in their early eighties. We haven't seen each other since the Christmas of Paula and David's divorce when my grandparents, Paul and Martha Craig, shipped Paula, Meghan, and me off to spend the holidays with the Craigs and Meiers in the latter's home in Huntington Beach (L.A.). Meghan remembers us as 12 and 6 years old. She's probably right. Since then, Betty and Gene moved to Prescott AZ, and then built in a gated community in Grant's Pass "across the river" from their current residence, a lovely but smaller (than 1.5 acres) beautifully furnished home.
I found myself sitting at her bedside, hearing him worry about his sister (nine years older) whom he has just moved from California to a nearby locked facility that can deal with wander- risk dementia cases. She keeps falling but hasn't broken anything yet, which we agree is often the beginning of the end. "That's gotta be the worst way to go," says he. I casually mention, while going through my mother's pictures with them, that "this is our little boy, the one we just lost." On the way home Mom asks if I'm integrating well or just an excellent actor. I'm sure I claimed both, as well as reasonable psychological health. Whatever.
Last night the horizon was issued a citation, with penalties in excess of several million Canadian dollars, for impersonating the best of both Texas' and arctic sunsets. How is beauty of this magnitude still possible?
I gave my Mom a Christmas gift of an mp3 player, so she can carry music with her and control the volume, thereby becoming able to listen to beautiful sounds again. While packing it with some best-of-the-best and inescapable rhythms the "how is this beauty possible" question kept coming up in my heart.
Wise body. Resentful. Holding until the hand cramps and makes hurting impossible to deny or delay (waiting to be entirely alone) entirely.
My mind has no trouble with appreciating how beautiful fragments of life can be, especially on reflection, but my body feels them embedded as shards for all their glistening.
Our last images of Aidan include several from December 4th when he fell against a cabinet door and the pull struck the corner of his mouth which bled and swelled.
The bleeding stopped in almost no time, as usual, but the feeling of having to deal with some profound offense stayed in his body and showed on his face for some time. What to do with pain? Can't make it go away. It insists on itself, and on time. It insists and imposes and grates away some soft, innocent parts to which the body was attached.
In profound discomfort he is a toddler, a "big boy", and no longer a baby here. He looks so much older to me than when he was so small in my arms, looking up into my face, falling into sleep slung in my pouch, walking with the dog under the moon, staff in hand through the cooling night.
This is our little boy, the one we just lost.
I don't want to stop my faithful hurting.
I want my boy back.
I want my boy back.
Labels: aging, Aidan, dying, family, grief, Shepherd
| posted by Unknown @ 12/29/2006 02:32:00 PM
Dilemma.
Not wanting to freak anybody out.
Wishing I had taken these possibilities more seriously.
Not sure what applies.
Certain I wish I had done everything recommended.
Feeling obligated to pass this around, at very least.
In my worse moments needing restraints to prevent going door-to-door with print-outs.
Please pass it on if you can.
Having a hard time getting the Ferris wheels and carousels of reservations to stop revolving in my head.
B
What Can Be Done?
Unfortunately, we cannot expect to prevent all SIDS deaths now. To do so requires a much greater understanding of SIDS, which will be achieved only with a commitment from those who value babies and with a considerably expanded research effort. However, there are things that can be done to reduce the risk of SIDS.
Parents-To-Be
1. Get medical care early in pregnancy, preferably within the first three months, followed by regular checkups at the doctor's office or health clinic. Make every effort to assure good nutrition. These measures can reduce the risk of premature birth, a major risk factor for SIDS.
2. Do not smoke, use cocaine, or use heroin. Tobacco, cocaine, or heroin use during pregnancy increases the infant's risk for SIDS.
3. Take care to prevent becoming pregnant during the teenage years. If you are a teen and already have one infant, take extreme caution not to become pregnant again. The SIDS rate decreases for babies born to older mothers. It is highest for babies born to teenage mothers. The more babies a teen mother has, the greater at risk they are.
4. Wait at least one year between the birth of a child and the next pregnancy. The shorter the interval between pregnancies, the higher the SIDS rate.
Parents
1. Place infants to sleep on their backs, even though infants may sleep more soundly on their stomachs. Infants who sleep on their stomachs and sides have a higher rate of SIDS than infants who sleep on their backs.
2. Place infants to sleep in a baby bed with a firm mattress. There should be nothing in the bed but the baby - no covering, no pillows, no bumper pads and no toys. Soft mattresses and heavy covering are associated with the risk for SIDS.
3. Do not over-clothe the infant while he/she sleeps. Keep the room at a temperature that is comfortable for you. Overheating an infant may increase the risk for SIDS.
4. Avoid exposing the infant to tobacco smoke. Don't have your infant in the same house or car with someone who is smoking. The greater the exposure to tobacco smoke, the greater the risk of SIDS.
5. Breast-feed babies whenever possible. Breast milk decreases the occurrence of respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. Studies show that breast-fed babies have a lower SIDS rate than formula-fed babies do.
6. Avoid exposing the infant to people with respiratory infections. Avoid crowds. Carefully clean anything that comes in contact with the baby. Have people wash their hands before holding or playing with your baby. SIDS often occurs in association with relatively minor respiratory (mild cold) and gastrointestinal infections (vomiting and diarrhea).
7. Consider using home monitoring systems (apnea/bradycardia monitors) in an attempt to prevent sudden death in high-risk infants.The risk of SIDS in the following groups exceeds that of the general population by as much as 5 to 10 times:
* Infants born weighing less than 3.5 pounds.
* Infants whose sibling died of SIDS.
* Infants exposed to cocaine, heroin, or methadone during the pregnancy.
* The second or succeeding child born to a teenage mother.
* Infants who have had an apparent life-threatening event.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of home monitoring with the baby's doctor before making your choice. Many communities have specialized programs for the clinical management of babies at high risk for SIDS. For information about the availability of such programs in your area, ask your baby's doctor or contact the American SIDS Institute. (See our clinic page.) | posted by Unknown @ 12/27/2006 02:52:00 PM
Not wanting to freak anybody out.
Wishing I had taken these possibilities more seriously.
Not sure what applies.
Certain I wish I had done everything recommended.
Feeling obligated to pass this around, at very least.
In my worse moments needing restraints to prevent going door-to-door with print-outs.
Please pass it on if you can.
Having a hard time getting the Ferris wheels and carousels of reservations to stop revolving in my head.
B
What Can Be Done?
Unfortunately, we cannot expect to prevent all SIDS deaths now. To do so requires a much greater understanding of SIDS, which will be achieved only with a commitment from those who value babies and with a considerably expanded research effort. However, there are things that can be done to reduce the risk of SIDS.
Parents-To-Be
1. Get medical care early in pregnancy, preferably within the first three months, followed by regular checkups at the doctor's office or health clinic. Make every effort to assure good nutrition. These measures can reduce the risk of premature birth, a major risk factor for SIDS.
2. Do not smoke, use cocaine, or use heroin. Tobacco, cocaine, or heroin use during pregnancy increases the infant's risk for SIDS.
3. Take care to prevent becoming pregnant during the teenage years. If you are a teen and already have one infant, take extreme caution not to become pregnant again. The SIDS rate decreases for babies born to older mothers. It is highest for babies born to teenage mothers. The more babies a teen mother has, the greater at risk they are.
4. Wait at least one year between the birth of a child and the next pregnancy. The shorter the interval between pregnancies, the higher the SIDS rate.
Parents
1. Place infants to sleep on their backs, even though infants may sleep more soundly on their stomachs. Infants who sleep on their stomachs and sides have a higher rate of SIDS than infants who sleep on their backs.
2. Place infants to sleep in a baby bed with a firm mattress. There should be nothing in the bed but the baby - no covering, no pillows, no bumper pads and no toys. Soft mattresses and heavy covering are associated with the risk for SIDS.
3. Do not over-clothe the infant while he/she sleeps. Keep the room at a temperature that is comfortable for you. Overheating an infant may increase the risk for SIDS.
4. Avoid exposing the infant to tobacco smoke. Don't have your infant in the same house or car with someone who is smoking. The greater the exposure to tobacco smoke, the greater the risk of SIDS.
5. Breast-feed babies whenever possible. Breast milk decreases the occurrence of respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. Studies show that breast-fed babies have a lower SIDS rate than formula-fed babies do.
6. Avoid exposing the infant to people with respiratory infections. Avoid crowds. Carefully clean anything that comes in contact with the baby. Have people wash their hands before holding or playing with your baby. SIDS often occurs in association with relatively minor respiratory (mild cold) and gastrointestinal infections (vomiting and diarrhea).
7. Consider using home monitoring systems (apnea/bradycardia monitors) in an attempt to prevent sudden death in high-risk infants.The risk of SIDS in the following groups exceeds that of the general population by as much as 5 to 10 times:
* Infants born weighing less than 3.5 pounds.
* Infants whose sibling died of SIDS.
* Infants exposed to cocaine, heroin, or methadone during the pregnancy.
* The second or succeeding child born to a teenage mother.
* Infants who have had an apparent life-threatening event.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of home monitoring with the baby's doctor before making your choice. Many communities have specialized programs for the clinical management of babies at high risk for SIDS. For information about the availability of such programs in your area, ask your baby's doctor or contact the American SIDS Institute. (See our clinic page.) | posted by Unknown @ 12/27/2006 02:52:00 PM
Boxing Day
This morning I lay abed sniffling, sneezing, feeling overwhelming saddness, until I wrote at great length in my journals (dream and waking), shaved, showered, and dressed. By the time the beloved women in my family returned from conquering the world of retail I was much better prepared for what was to follow (see video below).
| posted by Unknown @ 12/26/2006 11:31:00 PM
Initiation
In the season of the birth of The Baby, the first-born son, the peaceful prince, the one whom the wise showered with gifts, there is a voice crying in the wilderness. The echoes of the slain innocents foreshadow a nearer reality than Easter. The guaranteed story ends differently this time. Again. After the manger, the swaddling, and fifteen months to get up on his feet the Perfect Hope, the Promise One dies, face down, alone, and with no hint, portent or crumb of meaning. He’s already dead and getting cold when Mary and Joseph manage to hold him for the last time before the authorities claim his corpse and take it away to cut it up for proofs. Then what’s left goes to the fire.
God is not Love. If the Idea “God” applies to something, God is God. I often feel something like being loved when I draw breath and open my eyes, inexplicably alive another day. But God is also the ravenous Hag who rends her living, screaming children and devours them in the night. Also the petty tyrant, the One Perfect King whose fatherly mania demands the attributions “All” and “Powerful.” The Shepherd of sky and fire who rapes or slaughters his sheep and directs adherents by example to do likewise. Obviously neither Justice nor fairness apply to the sudden death of a 15 month old apparently healthy child. Odds are a joke. What are the odds of two generations in a row in the same family losing the first-born son as a toddler, with no connection any one can find between their ways of passing?
I don’t “have a special angel now, in heaven.” I have an empty hole where my heart was, perfectly shaped for an expensive wooden box full of ashes. There may be angels, or other angles, or a Snuggly Papa God, but you don’t know that for believing it, and I don’t have that. What I have is negation. The lasting promise that anything I think, do, know, want, hope, is at best profoundly limited in scope, instantly eradicable, and, though I am beyond words with gratitude for my small community, irrelevant to the vast majority of beings alive today. What I have is indisputable empirical support for the idea that very little Matters.
Many thing matter, of course, but they are beautiful or valuable to me and maybe a few others because it is possible to touch that specific child. This caress, or the ingenious working of those mechanisms or impact of these phenomena may change the quality of this day, in particular, or maybe, at most, the next generation. But the entire planet going up in a blaze of nuclear arrogance might be, at best, a bit awkward. But probably not really. Who’d notice?.
Merry Christmas, because your most beautiful, innocent, perfect, healthy, blossom of Hope may already be dead in the next room, and that last warm hug may have just become the Last before the rigid cold set in. Hold those you love tightly - not to keep them safe, because you can't, but because each touch begins an ending. An end to the future. An end to the fantasy that All will be Well. It won't. It will simply be all there is. And each warm, fleeting touch is dearer to the body and nearer to a human Peace than can be promised by straining toward a Hereafter.
Sorry.
“SHARE THE VISION”
Luke 1:39-45 Isaiah 12:2-6
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
Epworth United Methodist Church
Berkeley, California
December 17, 2006
Luke 1:39-45 Isaiah 12:2-6
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
Epworth United Methodist Church
Berkeley, California
December 17, 2006
Friends,
Once again, the text and what was preached are not one in the same.
Grace and peace.
This is a different day than any of us envisioned. Whether you are here for the first time and never knew young Aidan whom we mourn, or whether you are counted among those devastated by the incomprehensible loss of that bright wondrous 14 month old child ... you are here ... we are here ... in an unexpectedly Advent Sunday.
Prepared themes and prior weeks’ preparations have been wildly disrupted by hearts breaking and grace awakening. Everything is changed ... and nothing has changed. Life continues to emerge and blossom ... in shared tears, in shared anger, in shared memory, in shared joys and burdens, in shared vision. One person asked me yesterday, “How can we go on with Christmas as usual?” We can’t... praise God. For we have become unexpectedly Advent people expecting, longing, aching for good news of God With Us.
A more demanding question probably is how can we not go on to Christmas? How can we not go on to vision? Not just because our faith proclaims that life and love do not end in death. But even more because our shared faith ... and commitment ... and love ... won’t let us alone, and won’t let us go, and won’t let us ignore the claim that God-With-Us still places upon us. As we “share one another’s joys” and “bear one another’s burdens,” how can we not go on to live lives, to build a community worthy of the eager joy, love and promise that shone so brightly, briefly and yet so memorably in Aidan, in that precious child of God? and in Jimmy, whose baptism we will celebrate today, that precious child of God? ... in every precious child of God?
I was shaken as well as moved when I looked again at the Gospel reading for this Sunday and began to read its familiar words ... “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’” I realized this story is not just about the babies ... John and Jesus ... it is about the women who bore and loved and lost them.
We know about people walking in darkness and trusting God.
Mary and Elizabeth ... kinswomen ... cousins ... widely separated by age and situation were drawn together ... and drew strength from each other.
Elizabeth was menopausal ... she had prayed for children all of her life ... I know that prayer...she had never been able to have a child...I know that grief....and now,... she found herself pregnant . She was an “old” woman for her day, and she was six months along when she heard that her unmarried teenage cousin Mary was pregnant too.
When Mary learned that she was pregnant ...poor... too young ... not married ... potentially shamed and shunned ... what did she do first? She journeyed “with haste” to the rural village of her cousin, Elizabeth.
When Mary knew she would give birth to Jesus she sought company ... community. In the face of this disruptive vocation, she did not want ... to be alone.
Mary, who wondered at the news that she would bear the Savior, also carried the burden of unexpected blessing.
Elizabeth, who rejoiced at the news that she would bear a child, also carried the burden of overdue blessing, of an aging body, of an unknown future.
Let’s guess ... 15 and 50 ... wildly different circumstances ... what did they offer each other? Potential ...and experience. Vulnerability ...and physical strength. Endurance and surprise. Age, youth, questions, hopes, expectation, confusion ... and, most fundamentally ... companionship.
Next Sunday we will celebrate the birth of the song and the son of Mary.
The theme for this Sunday is “share the vision.” We’re not in this alone.
Earlier this year I preached on an affirmation that we are “Easter people in a Good Friday world.”
Well, today we truly are Unexpected Advent people in a Christmas world of low ... to no ... expectation. Each year we enter the season of Advent ... the four Sundays before Christmas. We remember the stories about expectation. We tell the stories about a people yearning and longing ..for a saviour ... who can turn night into day ... despair into hope... grief into joy. We remember.. at a sentimental distance, because we already know the rest of the story. We hear about waiting while what we say we’re waiting for already is all around us. I remember last year, one of our wise children asked, “But wasn’t Jesus born last year?!”
We speak of Advent ... we light candles... but we’re really already “Christmas as usual” people.
But suffering, or even the everyday questions of children (for those who have ears to hear)force us to look deep ... shake us back to real longing, and yearning, to wonder and to waiting desperately for Good News of God-With-Us.
The Gospel of John begins with familiar words, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.”
The story of Mary and Elizabeth is not just about disruptive new life for two women. It is about disruptive vocation and vision for the salvation of all people.
Mary ... blessed and now sanctified ... could have been too scared to reach out ... but she ran to Elizabeth ... and they held each other up. They perceived God and praised God for bringing new life through them to the world. They recognized the blessedness of the other, and the relationship between the new life within them.
On the cover of your worship guide you see a copy of Epworth’s new logo introduced this Advent....(T-Shirts are available from our youth group....)
Our advent theme, “Do You See What I See?” also expressed an invitation to describe what people saw in this simple, evocative symbol as a means of naming God’s yearning for new life through this body of faith ... “a dove, a baby, a snail, a seashell, a Madonna, a seal, a mother and child, a rose, an otter, a swan, a home, a shofar, trumpet, peace, an ear, a vessel, a womb, an angel, a germinating seed.
Each vision has both a nurturing, sheltering dimension as well as an opening and emerging spirit.
Now, I invite you to share your vision. Shared vision is not one thing alone ... sharing vision is seeing God in the world, in one another, in ourselves and honoring what others see as resolutely as we put forth what we see. Let us perceive and praise God every week, every day, and discern our future led by unexpected and long overdue blessings.
For the past three Sundays as different people have lit Advent Candles, they’ve offered statements of vision, I’ve sensed a movement beyond logos to Logos ... beyond symbol to Word made flesh.
Last Sunday a first conversation was held to share dreams for children’s ministries...and possible staffing for such ministries.
Let us speak the truth given us, let us listen deeply to God and to one another, let us make plain the vision.
Barbara Brown Taylor, in a published sermon titled “Mothers of God” describes the ways in which even people of faith can and do say “no” to the claims and visions of God’s work and purposes. We can say “no” by refusing to look. We can say “no” by becoming angry, or bitter. And then, Brown Taylor writes, “Or you can decide to say yes. You can decide to be a daredevil, a test pilot, a gambler. You can set your book down and listen to a strange creature’s strange idea. You can decide to take part in a plan you did not choose, doing things you do not know how to do for reasons you do not entirely understand. You can take part in a thrilling and dangerous scheme with no script and no guarantees. You can agree to smuggle God into the world inside your own body. Deciding to say yes does not mean that you are not afraid, by the way. It just means that you are not willing to let your fear stop you.”
I believe that the emerging vision of Epworth has a great deal to do with the well-being of children, with a just ordering of our society and our world on behalf of those who labor to keep the basic work of living going on. It has to do with probing the depths of our souls rather than slipping along in the shallows, even progressive shallows. It has to do with songs of the spirit and everything to do with radically inclusive life-changing faith in Christ. This shared vision understands that as people move together, God’s light dispels the darkness of even the deepest night. Amen. | posted by Unknown @ 12/18/2006 01:08:00 PM
Obit.
The Guest Book for Aidan Paul WilliamsCraig will remain online at InsideBayArea.com until January 17, 2007 and here forever, or until five minutes from now. You never know. | posted by Unknown @ 12/18/2006 09:38:00 AM
Great sadness.
Lisa and I lost our almost 15 month old son, Aidan Paul WilliamsCraig, to an unknown ailment during the afternoon of December 12th. He never awoke from his afternoon nap. We have been given no medical reasons for his death and have been warned that one might not be found.
Aidan was our love, our light, our joy, our world.
He was a beautiful little boy who loved to laugh, play, dance, hug and be held, adventure outside, and watch the world with fascination.
He liked music, swings, slides, dogs, ice cream, cookies, playing ball, putting his viking hat on everyone, being tickled, and making people smile.
We loved him beyond words and our sorrow is beyond words.
If you would like to send flowers or food, please send to the church for the Tuesday night service rather than to our home. We are so overwhelmed by the flow of support that we lack adequate words to express our gratitude for your sympathy and compassion. We look forward to being with folks more after the season has changed.
Warmly,
Lisa and Brandon
Photos and information (when we know more) may be found here and in our family web gallery. The fund we created to receive donations in honor of his birth will be used to receive any donation anyone would like to make. They are tax deductible and will go to some beautiful use related to the wellbeing of children.
His obituary is online for a few days and has a guestbook that can be signed or can record an audio entry. Please feel free to click here and leave your words there, leave comments on this blog, or call Association Building toll free number (866)236-0346 and leave a message there to be passed on to us later. | posted by Unknown @ 12/13/2006 01:51:00 PM
Lisa and I lost our almost 15 month old son, Aidan Paul WilliamsCraig, to an unknown ailment during the afternoon of December 12th. He never awoke from his afternoon nap. We have been given no medical reasons for his death and have been warned that one might not be found.
Aidan was our love, our light, our joy, our world.
He was a beautiful little boy who loved to laugh, play, dance, hug and be held, adventure outside, and watch the world with fascination.
He liked music, swings, slides, dogs, ice cream, cookies, playing ball, putting his viking hat on everyone, being tickled, and making people smile.
We loved him beyond words and our sorrow is beyond words.
There will be a celebration of Aidan's brief but amazing life this Tuesday evening,
December 19th at 7:00 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church in Berkeley.
1953 Hopkins Street, Berkeley, CA 94707 • 510-524-2921.
December 19th at 7:00 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church in Berkeley.
1953 Hopkins Street, Berkeley, CA 94707 • 510-524-2921.
If you would like to send flowers or food, please send to the church for the Tuesday night service rather than to our home. We are so overwhelmed by the flow of support that we lack adequate words to express our gratitude for your sympathy and compassion. We look forward to being with folks more after the season has changed.
Warmly,
Lisa and Brandon
Photos and information (when we know more) may be found here and in our family web gallery. The fund we created to receive donations in honor of his birth will be used to receive any donation anyone would like to make. They are tax deductible and will go to some beautiful use related to the wellbeing of children.
His obituary is online for a few days and has a guestbook that can be signed or can record an audio entry. Please feel free to click here and leave your words there, leave comments on this blog, or call Association Building toll free number (866)236-0346 and leave a message there to be passed on to us later. | posted by Unknown @ 12/13/2006 01:51:00 PM
Everybody Knows
An original song for Aidan but headed in all kinds of additional directions, especially into sing-along political lyrics.
Since audioblogger is no more and no longer supporting the posting of recordings, I now use
Gabcast!. This is Everybody Knows v1.1 Key of D, folk intro (a b c), simple D (alternating to A7 at the end of the second line). Works well plucking the parts of the chord.
One left click on the play button (> bottom left on the player below) starts the recording going.
| posted by Unknown @ 12/05/2006 01:19:00 PM
