Let Death Heal and Teach You

"To die is different than anyone supposes, and luckier." (Walt Whitman)

Birth. Life. Death. 

"There is a time for everything under the sun... a time to be born, a time to die," as the writer of Ecclesiastes pictures our earthly cycle.

Years ago, I visited my sister in the hospital. She's  41. 

In the ICU, she's left with the machines, given only a few days to live from cancer.

I'd never seen a human being in such terrible physical state - mere skin and bones. 

When she opened her eyes, tears just flowed.

I felt helpless. I couldn't do much but hold her hand and prayed for her. 

At that sacred moment, there felt a kind of primal interchange that occurred between us.

My sister gave me lessons through her death.

Death heals by teaching us about the full reality of what life really is.

There's a lightness that comes from grasping the bigger picture of the cycles of life we all go through.

In a way, I deal with death or near-death issues in my therapy sessions. 

All the time, in subtle or not-so-subtle varied scenes and relationships of life.

Think of how acceptance and appreciation of death will alter your concept of birth and life. 

Of the meaning of our limited days. Of fleeting childhood and youth. Of family and work. 

Of loss. Of grief. Of illness and aging. Of eternity.

I can tell you when you die, there's nothing to fear. Your spirit is alive and timeless as you depart from your body - as you surely will.

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will never die," Jesus promised (John 11:25)

Let death heal and teach you.