Waking the Dead

As the story goes, a wake was a rowdy place to drink and dance so you could wake the dead and have them join the party. This is the origin of the saying: “you are making so much noise that you will wake the dead.” Just like the doctor who finally gives up on trying to resuscitate someone who heart quits beating, a wake has to end. At some point everyone would get tired and go home. The dead stays dead and everyone else is dead tired.

Another reason people tried to “wake the dead” was to be sure the dead person’s soul was alert and ready to transition to the afterlife. I think we all know someone who was never awake during life much less being awake after they died. For those of us that believe in the afterlife, I guess it was important to not sleep in your body and forget to go to the next stage in your journey.

A third reason was to appease the dead by having a party in their name. You never knew if this person was angry at dying and would seek revenge on the living. Showing them some love during the wake would keep them from coming back to haunt you as they do in the Ghost Whisperer TV show. This haunting thing has spawned a whole genre of movies but has never really been proven as a truth. However, without ghosts, zombies, and other undead creatures, Halloween would not be near as fun.

Finally, the fourth reason was actually to celebrate that someone had died. All of us have someone in our life that we wish would just go away. Some even think about how much better their life would be if that certain someone died. No one wants to talk about that possibility because it isn’t nice and they may just come back as a zombie and eat you. Most of us have enough enemies in this life without creating any new undead ones. So respect for the dead is very important.

Showing respect and honoring the dead person is what we think the wake should be about. Use a theme that matches the important things is that person’s life. At the wake, you can party loud enough to wake the dead, but keep in mind that it is about remembering a life well lived. It is a life that deserves to go out of this world in style.

Read more...

Last Years, Last Days, Last Thoughts, Last Plays

As you get older, you watch the lives end for people you love and people who have been a part of your life as long as you can remember. So goes the process for each of us as deaths slips quietly closer and closer to our door. We are just too busy living to notice until we wake up one day and start counting the years left instead of the years we have lived on this Earth. Our thoughts turn to what may be after death and a shadow of doubt blankets our vision of the afterlife. Finally, we can see a world that does not include us ever again. We will depart and leave it to those left behind. That is the one true thing we can all count on to happen in the end.

How we handle the next few years will say a lot about our true beliefs and personality. Will you go quietly into the night expecting to wake up in a Heavenly place or will you go kicking and screaming like a child afraid of what lies in the dark? It is our belief here at PyreFyre that you feel a closer affinity with the afterlife, as you get closer to your departure date. Although none of us know that day, our soul senses something coming on the horizon with our earthly attachment seeming a lot weaker. It feels almost like you could have an out of body experience at anytime. Your soul begins to understand that it is separate from the body.

In the end, we want to leave a legacy, feel comfortable about what happens next, and go out in style. Here at PyreFyre, we just concern ourselves with going out in style. We do understand that to go out in style you must certainly feel comfortable with what happens next. While it is certainly appropriate to feel apprehension about the afterlife, those that feel like going out kicking and screaming should find another site to express that fear. So think about those last plays. Have some fun, enjoy the things you meant to do years ago, and get set to experience wonders not seen before.

Read more...