Heidi in Real Life

When the sun was highest and there were no shadows noon on that June Michigan day, I went stomping through the field to pick flowers for my mother.  The daisies and dandelions I clutched were already bending over, wilting in my tight grasp, but my eyes were fixed on the blue cornflowers just beyond. I knelt on the hot ground and pulled on the weed, expecting it to relent to my little hands.   The stem was strong and stubborn.   I ended up stripping the stem of its leaves all the way up to the flower head, which popped off in my hand.   I regarded it for a moment in that bright sunshine and then let it drop.   I decimated 4 flowers before I finally gave up. In my little 5-year-old, not fully developed brain, I thought, “Me want flower.”   The consequences did not matter at all.   I did not mourn the flowerheads but kept trying until I learned that I was not strong enough to break them.   Now, as an adult with life experience, and a brain ...

Unplanned funerals suck.  Don’t blame the dead.   You, as the “still alive” need to prepare a suitable event …and they don’t just plan themselves.  Not unlike a wedding, you need a service complete with DJ (Death Jockey), food, and a venue.   Leaving things to chance or trusting friends and relatives will be the death of YOU!   Funeral Parlors do services all the time.  When you just “can’t”, let the professionals handle it.  These days, there are lots of options--forests, boats, even restaurants.  Funerals are for the living, so if you want a religious element, for God’s sakes, audition the clergy.  The pastor who did my mother’s funeral didn’t take very good notes, and on the day of, said her name wrong and made her sound like a very unfulfilled comptometer operator.  The minister at my father’s service, dressed in a cloak and hat-- a bit like Professor Snape.  At my friend’s recent funeral, at a restaurant, her sister-in...