To Everything, A Time to Be Born, A Time to Die

This morning I awoke to find a dead mouse outside my bedroom door. Now, my cats (really just one cat) are prolific hunters, and started bringing us trophy kills after we had our first child. I try to look at these dead rodents as offerings of thanks, pride, and worthiness that our cats see as their duty to our family. For the most part they catch the small things that would just be in the way should they find a nook in our homes, and usually by the time they make it to my doorstep they have "gone to a better place". This morning's offering was something more extraordinary, not because it was a rare bird or a bat, but because of the way our kids reacted to it when they saw it.
When I pointed out the seemingly dead rodent resting at our doorstep, G and F ran outside to admire it. G marveled at how "cute" it was, and how lucky that its eyes were still open. F wondered if maybe mice just slept with their eyes open, to which I convinced them to just leave it be until after we returned from our morning of school to find out.
Sure enough, the dead fuzzy thing was still there when we returned after school. Before anything else could happen G insisted we have a funeral, "to help it find its way back to heaven". How could I say no to that? So I carefully picked up the mouse (using a towel) and laid it in the middle of our backyard. G, F, and I then joined hands around the small grey creature, and just when I was expecting a solemn prayer, G suggested we dance around it. So there we were in the middle of a sunny Fall day, dancing around a dead animal singing songs, can it get much more Pagan? We sang to thank the Earth for life, and loving the life we have. We sang to wish the mouse a happy time in heaven and a fun life the next time around. We ended the funeral by tossing the mouse over the edge of the ravine and listening to it come to rest in the leaves below.
I never cease to marvel at the depth of empathy all of our children posses. I would never have honored this small creature, had my kids not witnessed its death. And how wonderful for all of us to get a chance to embrace life, all of it, as the circle that it is.