Selected Works from Steve Warila’s Memorial “Life After Death” Laura Gilpin – written in memory of a friend These things I know: how the living go on living and how the dead go on living with them so that in a forest even a dead tree casts a shadow and the leaves fall one by one and the branches break in the wind and the bark peels off slowly and the trunk cracks and the rain seeps in through the cracks and the trunk falls to the ground and the moss covers it and in the spring the rabbits find it and build their nest inside the dead tree so that nothing is wasted in nature or in love. “Teaching Your Children" Adopted from Rabbi Earl Grollman and David Wolpe A little boy once found a bird's nest that contained speckled eggs near his home. Fascinated, he watched it for a long time until he had to take a trip to the city. Upon his return, he rushed to the nest to see the eggs. He was shocked to find that the beautiful eggs were broken. All he saw were empty shells. He wept before his mother and cried, "These beautiful eggs are spoiled and broken." "No, my son", she answered, "They're not spoiled. All you see is the empty shell. The birds have escaped from the eggs, and soon they will be flying around the sky." Nature has a cycle. Like this egg, life changes and renews itself. The dead leaves of one season provide for the tree to grow the new leaves of another. All of death recycles in a renewed path to life. Those who die live on in many ways. They live on in our hearts as we remember them. One smart man (Voltaire) once said, "God gives us memories so that we may have roses in December." Even when the leaves have fallen, we can remember their beauty." To remember Steve as a dad, as a coach, as a friend, as a caring man is to recover the beauty of his life and plant it into our own lives. "In the Rising of the Sun " Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn In the rising of the sun and in its going down, we remember them. In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter, we remember them. In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of spring, we remember them. In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer, we remember them. In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn, we remember them. In the beginning of the year and when it ends, we remember them. When we are weary and in need of strength, we remember them. When we are lost and sick at heart, we remember them. So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are now a part of us, as we remember them. The Diamond in the March Snow (Demanten på marssnön) Sibelius There on the driven snow glitters a diamond so bright. Never was there a tear, a pearl, that sparkled more brilliantly. Out of a secret longing she shines with heavenly radiance: she gazes at the sun, where it rises in its beauty. At the foot of its beams she stands, adoring, and kisses it in deep love and melts into a teardrop. Oh beautiful fate, to love the highest that life has to offer, to sparkle in its sunshine and die when it smiles most beautifully.