Water gives us a way to honor our mourning over the loss of something dear to us. When we place our grief in Water's arms, she will hold it for us. Write something that you are mourning on a piece of bark (preferably found on the ground, not removed from a tree) and place it on the surface of a river or stream where the current can carry it away. You may want to pray or sing as you watch it travel out of sight. If feelings come up, let them flow. People have offered their dead to water in just this way for millennia, knowing that she is large enough to hold it all. Now take a deep breath, and turn back toward the rest of your life.
— Cait Johnson, Earth, Water, Fire, & Air