The other morning....a week ago to be exact...death visited us.
Death is a Janus figure...looking forward and looking back...for the dying, it might be the moment of salvation... apotheosis... transfiguration. For the living, it is picking up the pieces and moving on. Death and dying are something we face from birth on. It becomes part of our lives, be it a pet, a bird in the garden, a friend or a family member. It is a constant.
Yesterday, I was out in our garden (or soon to be spring garden) and near the resting place of our last departed cat. We have a conversation each time and Sunday was no different although similarly one-sided as was in his life. He talked; I listened.
I think he was saying that as happy and as loved as he was when alive, he is in an equally good place if not fantastically better. Emphasis on "fantastic".
We want that for him as we do every living creature, humans included. We discuss sometimes that only humans are ones who plan and execute bad things. Sure cats kill birds but that is an instinct. People are mean sometimes because they are just mean people but others plan out being mean. Our hope is that when they pass, they go to a better place and leave that stuff behind. But once that stuff is left behind, washed clean as it where, we and they are ready to move on and from all accounts it is toward a realm indeed fantastic. Someone showed us the way a while back and promised us all kinds of milk and honey and we believe Him or not, our choice I guess, but in the end, that is what we wish for everyone so why not for ourselves. That is the heart of a recent Easter by the way.
I know that when I pass on I want the rest of it to be chock full of people shed of bad things, of pets loved and gone, family who I want to catch up with for an eternity and friends who I miss and long for. That is what I take away from Easter Sunday and the passing of the good among us. Joe was good. Make no mistake. As sad as it is to see him go, he will contribute immensely to the next place.
That it will happen. In the silence. In the twinkling of an eye. At the last trumpet.
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
Death is a Janus figure...looking forward and looking back...for the dying, it might be the moment of salvation... apotheosis... transfiguration. For the living, it is picking up the pieces and moving on. Death and dying are something we face from birth on. It becomes part of our lives, be it a pet, a bird in the garden, a friend or a family member. It is a constant.
Yesterday, I was out in our garden (or soon to be spring garden) and near the resting place of our last departed cat. We have a conversation each time and Sunday was no different although similarly one-sided as was in his life. He talked; I listened.
I think he was saying that as happy and as loved as he was when alive, he is in an equally good place if not fantastically better. Emphasis on "fantastic".
We want that for him as we do every living creature, humans included. We discuss sometimes that only humans are ones who plan and execute bad things. Sure cats kill birds but that is an instinct. People are mean sometimes because they are just mean people but others plan out being mean. Our hope is that when they pass, they go to a better place and leave that stuff behind. But once that stuff is left behind, washed clean as it where, we and they are ready to move on and from all accounts it is toward a realm indeed fantastic. Someone showed us the way a while back and promised us all kinds of milk and honey and we believe Him or not, our choice I guess, but in the end, that is what we wish for everyone so why not for ourselves. That is the heart of a recent Easter by the way.
I know that when I pass on I want the rest of it to be chock full of people shed of bad things, of pets loved and gone, family who I want to catch up with for an eternity and friends who I miss and long for. That is what I take away from Easter Sunday and the passing of the good among us. Joe was good. Make no mistake. As sad as it is to see him go, he will contribute immensely to the next place.
That it will happen. In the silence. In the twinkling of an eye. At the last trumpet.
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
- Largo (The sick man, near death)
- Allegro molto agitato (The battle between life and death offers no respite to the man)
- Meno mosso (The dying man's life passes before him)
- Moderato (The sought-after transfiguration)
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