A Reflection for Healing
Friends, we gather here today as one big family, driven by hope. A family not chosen by bloodline alone, but knit together by love, by memory, and yes—by loss. Each flag that will be planted today is more than cloth and stick; it is a story. It is a life once pulsing with laughter, creativity, struggle, and love. It is a reminder that every person we honor was somebody’s child, sibling, parent, partner, or friend. And so together, we remember them.
But remembrance is not only about grief. It is also about witness. We stand here to say:
- your life mattered,
- your story matters,
- your memory will not fade.
The CDC has named what we know too well—that stimulants mixed with opioids are claiming more lives, that this crisis is not slowing down. But while numbers and statistics can overwhelm us, we know that behind each number is a face, behind each statistic is a soul, and behind every heartbreak is a family who longs for healing.
And so we stand together today not only in sorrow, but also in stubborn, unrelenting hope. Hope that binds us together when the night is long. Hope that insists recovery is possible. Hope that refuses to let stigma have the last word. Hope that rises like dawn after the longest night. Hope that stitches our broken places with threads of love. Hope that carries us, hand in hand, toward tomorrow. And from such hope, beloved ones – healing does flow—a healing of hearts, a healing of families, a healing of communities, a healing strong enough – to carry us all.
So Let us remember: To the grieving, you are not alone. To those in recovery, you are not forgotten. To the caregivers, first responders, and advocates, you are not without strength. We are one family, sharing one breath, with one great longing—for healing.
In the words of an old blessing: “May we find comfort in shared sorrow, strength in shared struggle, and peace in shared hope.”
So take a deep breath with me now.
Let your breath rise for the one you remember.
Let it rise for the ones still fighting.
Let it rise for yourself,
and for this great family we make together.
May our grief be honored, our healing be tended, and our hope be unbroken. May it be so, today and all days. May it be so for you.
As we turn to the specific remembrances…Let us be with the people we are remembering today with an embodied act of Blessing.
A Healing Blessing for People and Flags
As we prepare to plant these flags, we name each life, each love, each story. I invite you to speak aloud the name of your beloved, and as you do, we will wrap them in blessing:
For [Name]…
May their memory be strength.
May their love be light.
May their story never be forgotten.
Together we say:
We remember. We bless. We hold hope.
And now, as these flags take root in the earth, so may love take root in us. As these colors ripple in the wind, so may hope move through our grief.
As this family of flags rises together, so may we rise together— one big family, driven by hope.
Amen. Ashe. Shalom. Salaam. Aho. Namaste. And so it is.
