“It’s so magical and so very healing. The fact that I now get to play a role in it, the significance of placing prayers on the lanterns and the process that goes through it all, it is just so beautiful,” says Bryan Talisayan, Executive Director at Mental Health Alliance of Hawaii.
Bryan Talisayan has attended the Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawaii ceremony many times as a spectator but this year, he was invited by a friend to volunteer.
“She thought because of the work I do it would be a good match. I cried actually when she invited me because I felt extremely honored,” says Talisayan.
Talisayan is the Executive Director of Mental Health America of Hawaii who started caregiving for his dad last year with help from his brother and nephew.
“I think the greatest lesson my father taught me was the capacity to heal, help, and how important that is. We had a very unique relationship growing up. I didn’t become close to my dad until I was 21 years old. My mom had died during that year, and I was living in Seattle. I came back and hugged my dad for the first time in I can’t remember how long it had been. It was at that moment did I realized that this is a very important process for us to begin to heal our relationship,” says Talisayan.
Talisayan says the ceremony allows people to honor their lost loved ones and to embrace the grieving process.
Read more at KHON2.com.
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