"You are important because you are you and you are important to the day you die" this is a paraphrased quote from the founder of the modern hospice movement Dame Cicely Saunders. I remember hearing it and nodding in agreement as I heard it.
Our lives are precious. How we use the time that we have says a lot about each of us.
Today I sit as Joshie is swimming pondering our significance, the time we have, our legacy as we, as a family, prepare for a death.
There are several main thoughts that weave between a tapestry of others. These are some of the major threads:
1. Inevitability.
It's the 100% stat that stalks us. We all know it is going to happen. We mainly live choosing to push the thought to the back but dictates a lot of how we interact and it brings a level of fear with it. Fear can both be healthy or unhealthy. For example a healthily fear is to plan how to avoid mortality incidents through protective measures. An unhealthy example is the pursuit of the elixir of health.
2. Justice
This is twofold. First, In simplicity: Life is fair and death is unfair. Second, there is also a justness to feeling the "innings" are over and it is right for this to happen. The justice is there in eating the last spoon of the pudding and saying "thank you very much I enjoyed the meal, but now it's over". The justness comes from being rewarded for all the effort and energy to get to the last spoon of that sweet desert.
3. Finiteness
Our time is brief and has an end. The end is there and always near.
4. How we have lived
As these days come I am staggered by the love and people that have come to help. It's testimony to a person who put people before others and demonstrated this in their behaviour. The legacy was building the character in others.
5. What's next
This is twofold too. What's next for them and us. Certainly the loneliness is looming. The thought of not being near them or at the end of an email or phone. There's also a sense of hope. I've not died, nor am I God to know specifics of details. But I recognise humbly that i do not presume to know such details that only an author or creator can know.
Well time's up and off to get Joshie now.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
No comments:
Post a Comment