Sing no sad songs today: bring gratitude, not grieving! This life we celebrate and honor at the leaving. For ripeness of his years, for richness of his days, for gifts unique and dear we give God thanks and praise. Now death itself is past, the deep we cannot measure, and nothing good is lost that from his life we treasure: his image and his thought, the ways we knew him best, like flowers are gathered up in memory's bequest. O God, who gave us breath, our end is our beginning. You cradle us in death, our sorrow underpinning, and as our bodies die, as dust returns to dust, so may our spirits rise on wings of hope and trust.