Welcome Walkers ~ 2020 Virtual Evening Agenda
7:00 pm: We remember that they lived... for hours, days or years. We acknowledge the "hole" they have left in our lives is real and our grief is as unique as they (were).
We share our loved ones with one another. Under the same full moon we come together and feel their presence and the presence of each of us.
If I be the First of us to Die - Nicholas Evans - From The Smoke Jumper
If I be the first of us to die,
Let grief not blacken long your sky.
Be bold yet modest in your grieving.
There is a change but not a leaving.
For just as death is part of life,
The dead live on forever in the living.
And all the gathered riches of our journey,
The moments shared, the mysteries explored,
The steady layering of intimacy stored,
The things that made us laugh or weep or sing,
The joy of sunlit snow or first unfurling of the spring,
The wordless language of look and touch,
The knowing,
Each giving and each taking,
These are not flowers that fade,
Nor trees that fall and crumble,
Nor are the stone,
For even stone cannot the wind and rain withstand
And mighty mountain peaks in time reduce to sand.
What we were, we are.
What we had, we have.
A conjoined past imperishably present.
So when you walk the wood where once we walked together
And scan in vain the dappled bank beside you for my shadow,
Or pause where we always did upon the hill to gaze across the land,
And spotting something, reach by habit for my hand,
And finding none, feel sorrow start to steal upon you,
Be still. Close your eyes. Breathe.
Listen for my footfall in your heart.
I am not gone but merely walk within you.
7:20: We carry a light to guide our walk
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We show to all we pass
that there is a memory in our hearts
shining as bright as
the full moon we walk under
and the light that we hold in our hands
When you are ready, enjoy a Grief Journey Session with Ross McKeachie:
Ross McKeachie is a practitioner and teacher of Arkaya Yoga, Healing & Mindfulness which is rooted in classical Indian Yoga and traditional Tantra. He is also the Community Director & Assistant Teacher Trainer for Arkaya Awareness Centre. He has been given permission to work as a yoga facilitator, healer & coach by his teacher, Yogacharini Maitreyi, who is the founder of Arkaya. He is dedicated to the Yogic life-path and has worked alongside Maitreyi building the Arkaya community in Vancouver since 2015 and is in a continuing apprenticeship with her, training yoga teachers in both Vancouver and India.
Ross has been practicing Yoga since 2008 and teaching since 2015. His classes are down to earth meditative and light hearted. The focus is on cultivating awareness and inner harmony.
Ross is host of the Banyen Books In Conversation Podcast featuring interviews with leading authors, leaders and teachers in the field of spirituality and healing.
He also offers one on one coaching sessions to those who wish to ease suffering, cultivate greater harmony, hone their vision and purpose and align with their highest potential.
Looking forward to October 20, 2021
Circle your calendar for October 20, 2021 when we will (with toes and fingers crossed) come together for our fifth annual event. Plans are already underway and as you register for the walk and raise funds in-memoriam of your loved ones, you will be able to participate in our Mac&Cheese with an Even Bigger Twist recipe contest, Vocal Contest for the Silver Edition of the Moonlit Memory Walk Tribute Video and exciting prizes and gifts. Until we can be together in person we will all be together in spirit!