Is death really the end of everything?
No, it’s not.
It’s the end of our physical body, obviously. But it’s not the end of our spirit.
How could spirit, which is ageless, ever have an end? Heck, it doesn’t have a beginning, as far as I can see.
Many years ago, when I was a young schoolboy in wartime Britain, I was sent to a boarding school in the country so as to be safe from the bombing.
I remember my first day at that boarding school with crystal clarity. I remember how around supper-time, I was presented with a thick, and I mean thick, slice of white bread covered with a very, VERY thin coating of raspberry jam. There was no margarine on the bread, and of course, no butter.
I can still remember the look and taste of that massive slab of bread and jam as I lifted it to my mouth and bit into it.
And while I could never prove it in a million years, when I revisit that long-ago memory – and let myself feel what it was like to be present in that new school eyeing the room around me and the bread in front of me – I know that who I am at the core of my being is the same now as it was then. My spirit is unchanged.
Perhaps because I’m in my 80’s now, I do think once in a while about the end of my body. It’s not a morbid thought, mind you. I like to think of death as a transition. A journey into a greater experience of freedom.
As far as my own body is concerned, as I’ve mentioned to my wife and also mentioned in my will, I’d like it to be cremated, and the ashes scattered in some nice spot in the outdoors. I’ve always loved Nature. It seems very fitting to me that the body that has served me so well – and continues to this day to serve me so well — when the time comes, is returned to the earth – or the water, I love water — from whence it came.
Our body is of the earth – earthy, we could say — which is good, for how else could it be the wonderful, helpful friend that it is?
But you and I, I submit, are of spirit. Personally, I don’t know of any more encouraging thought than this.
Love and blessings to you and I’d love to share any thoughts you may have on the above.
Is death really the end of everything? is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Aging with Wisdom and Joy