It was a hard summer. Many horrific happenings in the state like the shootings in Aurora in Denver and so many fires in state and out West.
Here a huge wild fire suddenly started in Colorado Springs where I live and to our horror the wind pushed it suddenly down the mountain into town and it burned three hundred and forty seven homes and killed two people. The air was filled with smoke and debris and the heat of the days was intense.
I was sad. Too sad to work the first days and so often finding myself looking at the images on T.V. I could feel the tension in the city. I received countless emails from family and friends and spent my time at the computer. By the time the fire was contained with the hard and dedicated work of more than one thousand firefighters, it was declared the worst disaster that ever hit the state of Colorado. I was humbled.
It reminded me of a few other disasters that I lived through. Plane crash, terrible earthquakes in South America, hurricane Andrew in Miami. All events to remind me - and all others - that nature is unimaginably powerful and faced with it, we do not mean much even though we often think of us as top guns. The fires here left me really focused on what can happen and does happen so often as we read in the news or hear from other people that made it through a disaster. So many humans die of natural related events and we can only acknowledge the vulnerable state in which we live.
Which means I thought a lot about death. Life is finite and death is a part of life. It does not matter what we believe, or what age we are, one day we cease to breathe and that is the end. Are we ready? Death is the big unknown. A territory that is so unexplored as to be totally foreign despite what all humans have written about it. Where do we go? Do we survive death or do we plunge in total oblivion into the nothingness of non existence? Is there a God? Do we reincarnate? Do we go on to perfect ourselves and come back as better beings? Do we matter as humans? Is our life worthy, not worthy? Do we survive death and live forever-after in a form of bliss we often dream about?
What do you believe?
Belief dictates our way of life, our actions, our ability to act and to think and feel. I like to think that I will come back a much better being, enlightened, cleansed and renewed. The thought makes me smile. After all, nothing like going through the unfathomable door of the unknown so many humans have talked about and debated since eternity. Death will certainly bring answers.
Being friendly with death enables us to better live, to appreciate the subtle forms of life and its many expressions that evolve every day under our eyes. The little things as well as the important ones who are dear to our heart. Life as it comes daily and brings the joys of all the things we are familiar with.
I was once at a friend's home and offered to do the dishes. She told me "no, it is my meditation." It was great to see this simple act of cleaning the dishes as profound a happenings as a meditation can be.
I plan to greet my days with the humble approach of daily gratitude and as Casteneda has written in one of his books "carry death on my left shoulder."
Copyright 2012 Micheline Brierre
