Today, 2022 April 22 (22/04/22) (also 22/22/22, hah) is the birthday of the late husband of an old friend. Yesterday was the Queen’s birthday and my father’s.
Last week the Big Guy and I attended a wedding celebration in Letterkenny, Ireland. Tomorrow, family members from that Irish clan will be attending a wedding somewhere in Bavaria.
I certainly mark notable endings — deaths, as the obvious example — but it is beginnings that hold a special place in my heart. New babies and birthdays. First dates and weddings. New jobs, new homes, new cities.
I know that death is the inevitable end of all our exploring but I also know that exploration makes the time between now and then worthwhile. As Ralph Waldo Emerson did not say, life is a journey, not a destination. And as Lao Tzu apparently did say (even though his actual historical existence is debated and how the heck does that work?), a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
So here’s to all the beginnings: May celebrating them inspire us to take our own first steps on our own new journeys, every day.
Last week, I overheard my sister saying to a mutual friend in a phone call, about her impending death, “It’s just the next adventure.” So, death may not be the end of all our exploring but another beginning. As I accompany her towards that launch, many different conceptions of death and the hereafter have come to my attention. Perhaps the most challenging came today from an old friend, the author of a book on Heaven that I edited, who states that the afterlife is not a tour of the galaxies that come under the scope of the material time and space continuum, but something quite Other. It’s good to have images of solid Celtic cross and church spires to anchor that head-space.
Laurna – That’s a nice way to approach death – looking forward to the next adventure. May your sister go gently into whatever that good night offers.
Amen.