Thoughts on death

There he sits

in the house his hands have made

a wizened, gnarled version of himself

his daughters hover

solicitous

“Hey” he says as I walk in, “how are you doing?”

“That is my question!” I respond

the chair next to him is empty

after so many years

his wife, with her quick smile and easy laugh

is gone

reflexively he reaches over

but there is no hand to greet his

he is still strong, at 94

but in his eyes a question lingers

and in his voice

is the slightest hint

of a heart that is broken

_____________________________________________

When you lost a loved one, you suffer. but if you know how to look deeply, you have a chance to realize that his or her nature is truly the nature of no birth, no death. There is manifestation and there is the cessation of manifestation in order to have another manifestation.

                                                                                                             Thich Nhat Hanh

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”    

                                                                                                                                Jesus

We come from something (God, the Sacred), we become something new (who we are in this world), we carry the Sacred with us during this walk (The Spirit), and when we die, we go on to something else (not sure what that is, but it is ).  We return, perhaps, to the one who created us, and from whom we were never really parted.

                                                                                                                                                         Me