on Death & Dying … (09/30/13)
A Fare-Well Greeting …
Death is a funny thing, really … It is always looming over us; believing most arrogantly that it will ultimately “win the game” when our time runs out; when our essence of warmth is claimed by its icy hands; when our internal spark is extinguished and both who we are and who we have been fade into the darkness.
AND YET, I am here to remind each and every one of you that — depending on the choices you happen to make — death is NOT an inevitable victor.
Yes, our bodies will indeed one day pass — and yes, there will be things we wish we could have seen but did not; things we wish we would have begun but did not; people we wish we could hold one more time but cannot; acts of Kindness & reconciliation we wish we could share but cannot.
Fair enough, Death … “round 1” might very well one day go to you.
AND the “Game” of our lives in their entirety are not defined by what we have not seen or what we have not done or what we have not known … Rather, It is defined in the reverberations that we leave behind; the vibrations over which Death has no say; the echoes over which Death has no influence.
What happens after our physical passing is and will ever remain a mystery to the living, AND the immense Power of the choices we have made (and those choices we still have yet to make) is beyond wonderment or query.
We are conscious Beings, each and every one — and we have all been given the Power to emanate our essence Power-fully; we have all been given the Power to “live on” after we pass on; we have all been given the Power to beat Death.
And LOVE is this Power — not the hot & steamy “in love” that is felt in times of passion & yearning, and not the warm & fuzzy “love” that comes from soaking up times of comfort & friendship. No, the moments of our lives that will last forever are those when we have the courage to truly, deeply, selflessly LOVE — the moments when we have the courage to reach out to strangers, the moments when we have the nobility to forgive our enemies; the moments when we have the resolve to serve without reward; the moments when we have the humility to sacrifice willingly for another.
These are the choices that will stand the test of eternity … These are the emanations that will ripple outward to the edges of the Universe, before cascading back upon our progeny … These are the deeds over which Death has no sway.
No one knows when Death will come calling … For some of us, it will be in forty years, for others, it will come softly tapping today. Of course, if just doesn’t matter when that final moment arrives …
What matters is that we have lived in a manner that has made us ready to Go; what matters is that we have sent our Souls ahead of us into the Infinite to pave the Way of Peace; what matters is that we have lived lives of LOVE.
It’s never to late to start living forever.
So … got Eternity?
“Be all that Heaven gave you, and act as though you have received nothing.” ~ Chuang Tsu
“The process is irrelevant … It is the moment that matters.” ~ Pastor Dan Lewis
“The trouble is … you think you have time.” ~ Buddha
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