I’m might be going out on a limb here, but I don’t think we like to think about, much less talk about, death. My last post was about it, and the response from readers was eerily quiet. As in dead silent—pun totally intended. This isn’t an ask for a thumbs up or thumbs down. Not a fishing expedition for reactions. It’s an invitation to reflect on our relationship to one of life’s most fundamental experiences. Death is as true as birth, and it is coming our way whether we like it or not. It could be years off or minutes. The raccoon in the ditch I passed on my way into town this morning probably didn’t start the day knowing they wouldn’t make it to the other side of the road. They were simply going about an ordinary day. They were here, and then they weren’t.
I’m not suggesting we obsess about death at the expense of life, but rather that we observe it as a way to enrich the life we have. That whenever we encounter it—up close and personal or at a distance—we don’t look away. We greet it as a reminder that we are still here. We see it as the tender mercy that it is, prompting us to remember that we still have breath to draw, and people to love, and gifts to offer, and lessons to learn, and choices to make, and insights to gain, and naps to take, and meals to share, and books to read, and work to do, and words to speak, and words to hear, and fill-in-your-own blanks. And, there will come a time when none of those are an option. But not now. Not in this moment. Maybe the next one, but not this one. Talk about a gift.
It’s fall, and the leaves are turning color. This is their last hurrah and they are making the most of it. Brilliant red, copper, orange, and gold are on full display, and it is breathtakingly beautiful. But soon their time will pass. The leaves will fall, one-by-one, and become part of the collective leaf litter. Decomposing over time, they will become the fertile humus in which other life will grow and flourish. Our life, the one we are living now, will eventually become the soil from which future life will emerge.
Death is not the end. It is but another beginning.
