At about 9:30 or 10:00 (Pacific) last night I had a conversation with a dear friend last night about the finality of death. He is going through the police academy and has watched some actual videos of police / suspect encounters where he actually saw a few quite gruesome deaths. This dear friend is a deep, spiritual soul so he was affected, not adversely, but in a teaching sort of way. An understanding of life and a comprehension finality of death rested in him. It taught his spirit something it didn't know before.
Neither my friend nor I have witnessed first-hand a person dying in our presence. I have been with someone very ill just a few hours before their passing, and I felt the intangible reverence in the air of a preparation for death. And my friend experienced something close when a close family member had a brush with death a short time ago. So this conversation was an exchange of something learned.
My friend and I hung up the phone last night at 10:55/11:55 p.m. (Pacific/Mountain). I felt enlightened, taught and strengthened by the conversation
Less than 20 minutes later, tragedy struck in Colorado.
My husband went to a screening of the movie at 3:00 a.m. (long story of why that happened) at a theater in L.A., so I was sleeping lightly when he was away. I easily awoke to my phone buzzing, my Associated Press app notifying me of a horrific incident at a movie theater in Colorado. The weight of it didn't really hit me till I listened to details on the radio as I drove to work.
The choices of one man limited the life experience of so many. Cut it short. Ended it. Made their lives final. I am heartbroken.
Though it's nearly impossible to make sense of why it happens, I think there's more to death and tragedy than horror and pain. I think there's something our souls can learn and understand.
I have experienced some great difficulty in recent years, but I am not alone in my tears, toil and struggle. Another dear friend whose blog I follow lives with a set of circumstances thrust upon her following an automobile accident a couple years ago. In a recent post, she talked about "tears." She cries, but there's a voice that speaks to her soul that says,
Have your cry... But when you are done get back to what you were doing before the tears came. You can't sit around and mope all day. Get back to cleaning, or playing, or driving, or cooking, or studying, or living. There are things to do; you are not the only one crying.
Her honest, poignant words touched me very deeply. "...you are not the only one crying."
All of us experience trials, problems, sickness, and eventually even death one way or another. We will know people very close to us who pass away for any number of reasons. Expected or unexpected. Tragedy or relief.
That is said not to make light of an individual experience, but to join with it. To understand I am not alone in my difficulty, and to hopefully help someone else not feel isolated in his or her pain, loss, trial or difficulty.
In response to the tragedy in Colorado, President Obama said this morning,
...If there’s anything to take away from this tragedy it’s the reminder that life is very fragile. Our time here is limited and it is precious. And what matters at the end of the day is not the small things, it’s not the trivial things, which so often consume us and our daily lives. Ultimately, it’s how we choose to treat one another and how we love one another.
We hear often how "life is short," but we don't really know what that means until we have some type of tragedy or brush with death ourselves. However, I believe we can understand and reverence life without them. We will experience trials, problems or death anyway, but we don't need to wait till then appreciate life and its beauties.
It is my hope we all choose to treat each other with the highest regard, and may we truly love each other. Because that is the only thing that supersedes the limitations of life and the finality of death.
1 comment:
Mwah. I adore you. thank you for your thoughts.
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