June 12th: A Ceremony For My Mother (in person and via zoom)

 An Invitation To Save the Date

 

It will be two years on June 20th since the death of my mother. While some who have lost a loved one during Covid held memorials via zoom, that never felt right for me. So I've been waiting for the right time.

 

On April 3rd Portland Insight Meditation Community (PIMC) opened their doors to in-person gatherings for the first time in over two years. My husband and I were in Canada celebrating our grandson Ethan's 4th birthday on that day. And Ron and I also knew that we would not want to miss the next dharma gathering on April 10th, which was absolutely wonderful. And it was there that it came to me so clearly that now is the time to hold a memorial service for my mom. 

 

Robert Beatty is the guiding teacher at PIMC (https://www.portlandinsight.org/). He was also the person Ron and I chose to marry us in September 2013. 

 

Gratefully, my husband and I were able to schedule to meet with Robert last week. And some of the initial plans for this ceremony for my mother have now begun to fall into place:

• Date and time: Sunday, June 12th at 3:00
• PIMC address: 6536 SE Duke Street, Portland, OR 97206
• Both in-person and zoom will be available
• Woven into this memorial for my mother will be a brief honoring of my father and my twin brother, who did not have any memorial services at the time of their deaths in 1975 and 1978
• Following the service, people will be invited to gather in the living room at PIMC for tea and light snacks
  
• This ceremony will be open to anyone who feels called to share in this experience
• I will be needing to gather names of anyone planning to attend in-person
• I will also be needing to gather names and contact information (email or phone) for anyone wishing to attend via zoom
• I am requesting to be contacted in person or by text or email (mollystrong51@gmail.com) by anyone planning to attend
  

I have no idea who may want to be included and who will not already have plans on June 12th. We are certainly aware that many people may have vacation plans on that date. That said, what I do know is that there has been a diversity of people who have reached out to me over the years who have been impacted in some way by the story of my mother and myself.

Synchronicity has its wild and wonderfully mysterious and grace-filled ways of weaving its way through our lives. It was just this morning when my wise friend David Bedrick shared a new and significant piece of his story, for which I was very grateful. Included in what David spoke to was how it is that our stories do not only belong to us, but rather also to all who are touched by them.

So true. So true.

Therefore, there is this initial open invitation to anyone near and far who are drawn to honor my mother, who would like to support our family, and/or who may have been touched in some way by my mother's story and mine, a story which I have always known is much larger than the two of us. You would be most welcome to join us on June 12th.

More details to come...

With gratitude and warmest blessings,

💗

Molly