I go quiet for over a month and now there are two posts, two days running!! This one on death follows on from yesterday’s reference to death, so I decided to get it posted now and I hope it’s of use to some of you.
Death is home. Now there’s a thought and I wonder how it lands with you. For me, it says I came from somewhere, and I might go somewhere. Not the me talking now, but some aspects of me that I like to call my essence, some aspects of me came into this human condition. And when I die, that aspect of me, maybe a little bit altered, maybe not, that little part of me goes back to where it was at home, and then waits for the next experience. Perhaps being human again, perhaps something else, I don’t know, but it’s a lovely thought for me that I’ve come from somewhere and I’m going somewhere.
All that said, death is also the end of this particular life. If I do go back somewhere, death is still the end of this particular phase. Death is still potentially that which can get me up in the morning. Because death says You’ve only got one life, And it ain’t that long, And let’s do the best we can with it.
And, as death has got diminished, pushed away, hidden. And we use words like passing, and we don’t see the body, it’s all kept clean and tucked away in a wooden box. Sanitised. We don’t have the same relationship with death that our ancestors had, that I really do believe spurred them on to make the most of this life, And it also, I believe, spurred them on not just to make the most of their own individual life, but of the life of this planet, this natural life of which they very much saw themselves as a part.
We are apart from natural life in so many ways. Our ancestors were part of this natural life, And they knew about death, and they also knew when they had to kill for food and sustenance, they also knew they did not have to kill everything in sight just to get the perfect food on the plate. They killed just what they needed to give them the sustenance they needed. Many cultures would thank the animal for that sustenance,
So death is real, whatever may or may not be around in terms of coming home afterwards. I’m believing that both are true. I believe it is possible for me to believe death is the final part of this human life of mine. And death is a way home.
That bit I won’t know until I know, or don’t! That’s the paradox of death. It is real and when viewed as final, can be I believe a real spur to do and be my best in this life. And death might also be a coming home.
I hope that lands with you well, and I wish you well.
