{"id":4489,"date":"2021-12-20T09:40:49","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T14:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=4489"},"modified":"2021-12-21T09:38:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T14:38:12","slug":"a-green-burial-tom-frye-by-peter-crysdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=4489","title":{"rendered":"“A Green Burial – Tom Frye,” by Peter Crysdale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Part of a message given at Durham Friends Meeting, December 12, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Green Burial  – Tom Frye, by Peter Crysdale<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone asked me,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you find your way to Durham Meeting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I answered, \u201cRalph brought me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He brought Tom Frye too\u2026 40 years ago –\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both of us came and went and returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other day Tommie Frye came back again,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a simple pine box –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laid in a hole at the Lunt –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dug by his friends – next to Sukie, his friend\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all those years. He decided to do <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What love does and give <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His body back to Mother Earth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the simplest of ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back then – Tom came to the Parsonage with Ralph <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To find his way, after a long hardship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came up on weekends –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting at that table in the parsonage kitchen <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom told of his life – his profound suffering –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was neither bitter nor vengeful – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was one foot after the other – hanging around<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Parsonage was an act of recovery, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An act of Love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One year Tom was Santa at the Meeting<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas party – Ruth Graham thought<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was too tall To be Santa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next year she was Santa – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Made up and clothed so no<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One could tell it was her –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew – so did Tom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that Halloween when Ralph got<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom to lie down in an old sunken grave –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Cemetery behind the Parsonage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covered him with leaves – the kids <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Came by with their flashlights in the dark –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom rose – they were terrified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s mischief is Love in motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember the Spring kite-flying <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extravaganza in the Parsonage yard – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom and Ralph again – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later every tree was festooned with a kite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was Petunia the Parsonage Pig –  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ralph brought her home – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the elders complained that there <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weren\u2019t enough kids in the Meeting – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ralph said he could train pigs – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petunia would have none of it –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She lived in the Parsonage and got bigger<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And bigger – first Day came and Ralph read <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A chapter from Charlotte\u2019s Web<\/em> in Meeting,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A row of attentive kids looked on in wonder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worship is about being found by the love.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One First Day after a huge snowfall – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three feet of snow – slid off<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the roof of the Meetinghouse – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Landed with a HARUMPH!!!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Worship Settled that day –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone told me <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On another First Day, Tom, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who rarely spoke in Meeting – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sang Amazing Grace – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Worship Settled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were slowly seasoned <\/p>\n\n\n\n

by a Quaker cast of Characters – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helen – Ruth and Lucy – Merton and Bea, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlotte and Mary – John Curtis – Clarabel and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Louis – Lyda Wentworth – oh so many others –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seasoned means absorbing the Love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went off to Pendle Hill and Tom moved to Freeport –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Got a job – found a love – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recovering takes a lifetime. Last week <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom moved back- was buried in the Lunt –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We stood around tossing rose petals as we covered <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His body with earth. Love welcomes us home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of a message given at Durham Friends Meeting, December 12, 2021 A Green Burial  – Tom Frye, by Peter Crysdale Someone asked me, How did you find your way to Durham Meeting? I answered, \u201cRalph brought me!\u201d He brought Tom … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memorial-minute","category-message"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9rLvf-1ap","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4489"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4499,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489\/revisions\/4499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}