How to Honor Loved Ones on Earth Day
Spring is the perfect season to get outdoors and explore creative ways to remember and celebrate loved ones who’ve passed away. Below are a few of our favorite opportunities, inspired by author Allison Gilbert’s book, Passed and Present: Keeping Memories of Loved Ones Alive.
1. Create a Memory Garden
Grow their favorite flowers, plants, or herbs. If you don’t recall their preferences, simply choose plantings based on their favorite color. Don’t have a large enough patch of yard? No problem. Just move the project indoors. Using small pots on desks, tables, and windowsills works very well, too.
2. Plant a Memorial Tree
On Earth Day, plant a tree in honor of your loved one. Some organizations such as the National Forest Foundation make the process super easy. For a more hands-on experience, you may want to plant a sapling. Towns across the country host ceremonies for Arbor Day (held in April, too). You can also plant a tree in your Memory Garden.
3. Build a Refuge
After Allison Gilbert’s father died, her stepmother longed for a quiet place outdoors to think about her dad. Cheryl cleared out a few weeds from her backyard, bought an iron bench at a garage sale, and built a special path to get there. Lining the trail with medium-sized stones, Cheryl gathered the family over several days to paint each stone with a different stanza from We Remember Them, a poem by Rabbis Sylvan Kamens and Jack Riemer.
Here’s how the poem begins, adapted below:
At the rising sun and at its going down
We remember them.
At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter
We remember them.
At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring
We remember them.
At the shining of the sun and in the warmth of summer
We remember them.
At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of the autumn
We remember them.
At the beginning of the year and at its ends
We remember them.
As long as we live, they too will live;
for they are now a part of us,
as we remember them.
(Bonus content if you like poetry: watch Allison Gilbert’s Passed and Present conversation with poet Victoria Chang)
How do you take advantage of the warmer weather to remember loved ones? Share your ideas and photos with the For Grief Facebook Community. We can learn from each other.