Life And Death

Recently it seems that death has been all around me. My family members and those of friends, have passed away. My pets and pets of friends are no longer living here. It's so hard to let go but in reality those we love never leave us.

I have a hummingbird vase my sister gave me the Christmas before she died with cancer. It's not an expensive vase. The gifts we gave each other were not about cost but about value to the gifted. We both loved hummingbirds. In Summer she would have thousands of them in her yard. I cherish that vase. Sometimes when I pick it up I can feel her right beside me. When I hear certain hymns or bluegrass songs I can still hear my father singing. He is always with me. If I see a picture of a well dressed woman, with hat and white gloves I can feel my mother beside me. A dear friend passed a few years ago, I still sense her in hymns and in passages of the Bible she loved so much. My friend who died a year and a half ago had a recliner he always sat in when he came to visit. When I pass by that chair I can feel his presence, imagine his voice and his laughter. My precious, tiny Poodle was 16 years old. She had cancer and it was growing. I enjoyed those last days with her and when I was certain she was in pain and no longer happy to live, I held her as the vet gave her release. How I mourned and cried, how I missed her. Sometimes I can hear her little bark and feel her close to me.

The ones we love are never really gone. If someone has hurt you in life, I like to think that after their death they have a more perfect understanding and may then be able to love you from the other side. Life is so short, everyone dies, love all you can, forgive everything. Even if, in protecting your peace, you've had to distance yourself from someone who is toxic, love them still, even if from a distance. Love and the divine spark of life, God places within each of his creatures, live on forever. Love is an unbreakable bond, even death cannot break it. God himself is love and love is eternal.