A Beautiful Nature-Based Funeral Reading from John Muir

A simple reading for a memorial service or funeral to honor someone who loved the outdoors

 

The following funeral reading by John Muir is a loving testament to the healing power of nature, and the divine harmony between life and death. 

 

Known as ‘John of the Mountains,’ the Scottish-born American naturalist and environmental philosopher John Muir spent his life in close conversation with the natural world. His writings have inspired countless nature-lovers over the years and evoke the peace and profound beauty of the great outdoors. 

 

The piece below is from a work in the public domain called A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, written around 1870 as Muir traveled from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast. It’s spiritual but not religious, and can be adapted to fit any funeral service, memorial, or wake honoring someone who loved nature. 

 

Readings can be included in a funeral or memorial service at any time by a close friend or relative, or by the officiant / celebrant.

 

Include this reading in part or in whole – in an opening blessing, before or after the eulogy, or as a closing reflection on your loved one: 

“The rippling of living waters, the song of birds, the joyous confidence of flowers, the calm, undisturbable grandeur of the oaks, mark this place of graves as one of the Lord's most favored abodes of life and light.

 

On no subject are our ideas more warped and pitiable than on death. Instead of the sympathy, the friendly union, of life and death so apparent in Nature, we are taught that death is an accident, a deplorable punishment for the oldest sin, the arch-enemy of life…

 

But let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life, and that the grave has no victory, for it never fights. All is divine harmony.

 

…Arching grasses come one by one; seeds come flying on downy wings, silent as fate, to give life's dearest beauty for the ashes of art; and strong evergreen arms laden with ferns and tillandsia drapery are spread over all -- Life at work everywhere, obliterating all memory of the confusion of man.”

 

(From A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf; Chapter 4, Camping among the Tombs)

 

 

• VIDEO: Watch and listen to this moving reading in the video below. 

 

 

Asked to Officiate a Funeral or Memorial Service? 

 

If you’d like to get ordained online before serving as a funeral officiant or celebrant, complete our online ordination application here for free: 

|* custom-button, "https://theamm.org/get-ordained-online", "BECOME A MINISTER ONLINE" *|

This application to become an non-denominational AMM Minister only takes a few seconds to complete, is always free, and never expires. 

 

 

Keep reading for more guidance on how to conduct a funeral or memorial:

 

• How to Officiate a Funeral or Memorial Service
   
• Advice for First-Time Funeral Officiants: How to Talk With Grieving Loved Ones
   
• Officiating Weddings & Funerals: Similarities & Differences for Professional Officiants
   
• A Simple Funeral Service Script with Candle Lighting and Reading
   

 

Click the funeral script linked above for suggestions on a thoughtful, non religious gathering to honor your loved one.

 

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