We’ve all contemplated life after death, and we like to explore every possible outcome possible. What if there IS a heaven? What if there IS a hell? What if nothing happens? What if are reborn or reincarnated? These questions often float around heavy on our minds, and it is truly a fascinating thing to think about.
As we live, we think that nothing can happen to us, especially at the age of being a young adult. We are invincible. But then, our loved ones begin to enter their last leg of life and begin entering the realm of death. Great grandparents, grandparents, and parents all begin to get older and start to die.
It’s not a bad thing, it’s not something to mourn, and it’s not something that should shake you to your core when a loved one dies.
Forget the idea of heaven for a moment, and think about what death means in the basic, natural sense of it. When someone dies, they join a community that far outnumbers the living. There are exponentially more people that are dead than are alive at any one point. When we die we are not alone because we now join this community.
Our bodies become one with nature and provide life through the soil and through the plants for all the living creatures. We are dead, but not gone. We will always be a part of the environment and will always be a part of nature. The Romantics and Transcendentalists would argue that Nature is eternal, so with or without an afterlife we are eternal as well.
Death brings the end to pain and suffering. Old age brings declining health and a weakened immune system, so death is a relieving of suffering. It does bring sorrow to those who have to live on while someone dies, but this sorrow is part of the grieving process and is necessary. It shouldn’t take a prolonged period of time to accept the death of a loved one.
The tears come when we realize that memories are all we have left and that we can’t make any new ones. The tears come when there is a feeling of emptiness and the thought that we will never see or be with them again, but we are never without them.
Death is a celebration. The pain is alleviated. Nature and the community of the deceased have embraced our loved one. They are not alone. It is selfish of us to mourn, but it is a necessary selfishness. We want more than anything for them to be back in the land of the living with us, but we don’t understand or don’t want to accept that they are better off without us now.
Just because they are better off doesn’t mean we forget about them or they forget about us. They live on in Nature and in our thoughts and in our hearts. They are waiting there on the other side, waiting to embrace us when it is our turn.
Everyone dies, but everyone lives on after death. Heaven or hell, reincarnation, rebirth, or nothing, no matter the religion or faith, every life lives on.
