I have heard people say as a positive conclusion to a list of physical ailments or complaints "Oh well, it beats the alternative!" To which people respond with agreement, acknowledging that whatever we may be experiencing, we are still alive and that is always preferable to being dead! After all death is the ultimate fear, the unknowable and the great void, the end...that's all she wrote! Shakespeare's Hamlet contemplated "to be and not to be" concluding that there may not be peace even in the permanent sleep of death. How can we know so lets not go there, what's the point?
I was browsing a book at my library the other day, intriguingly entitled "Talking about death won't kill you," just my kind of book by the way. I like to tackle ideas that others throw up their eyes at and have little time for. The author Virginia Morris, a woman after my own heart as we would say in Ireland, was putting forward the idea that talking about death has many overlooked benefits. It can help us appreciate life more fully for one thing, it can help friends and families appreciate the relationships we enjoy more deeply and also can help immensely when the inevitability of loss visits our lives.
My father broached the subject of his demise to me years ago when he was making his will. I kept the discussion brief, adding I didn't want to imagine that day. This is a very natural response and I know I am not alone in my feelings. But I wish I'd been able to say how much I loved him and how unthinkable it was to no longer have him in my life. I wish we could have held each other and acknowledged that love and continued our discussion to its conclusion in awareness of the reality of that eventuality.
So many of us run from emotion - from being real and authentic and we miss out. I really feal our lives would be richer if we could simply allow our selves to be real. Emotion and discomfort just like all things come to pass and not to stay...we will not be swallowed in the slough of despond forever..in fact if we go there we can come out more quickly instead of skirting along the edges indefinitely. Its all about living fearlessly. All my life I have worked at releasing the fears that restrict my experience of life. I am still determined! So who wants to talk about death?
In and through all things Love is the message that Spirit would have us know; that we are loved, that we are love and that love is always the answer. Let the words you read here be a message for you today from the Universe that created you, perfect as you are.
A new book has been published here which describes the experiences of near death or "small death" of many people - 95% of the stories are extremely positive and describe the experience as almost ecstatic.This has removed their own fear of death and should be a very positive read for any questing soul. I have made a mental note of it as one of the books I want to read - will pass it on to you Joan when I do get hold of it .As for your regret at not entering the discussion with Dad - I had a similar experience when he expressed his worries about the future when he would no longer be around and well, its the human thing to do - to dismiss the notion that such a day will come - its as much to spare ourselves the gloomy prospect of a scenario that if we do allow ourselves to contemplate will bring on the sadness which descends in a deluge when the inevitable day arrives and which stretches throughout the rest of our days. For every thing there is a season.
ReplyDeleteHi joan -The last comment was from me - just in case you were wondering !!
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