Death is A Helluva Teacher!!

I went to a funeral yesterday. Yes, thank you for the thoughts of condolences. Yes, it was very sad with a lot of crying and flowers and people who had not seen each other in decades. And I don’t know if you have ever been to the homegoing services for somebody who was actually a good person but it’s different. The person giving the eulogy actually knew the deceased and had loving real life stories. Everybody who got up to speak had personal anecdotes that were filled with love and nodoby had to step in to tell them that they were going too long. Nobody had to lie. At least they didn’t sound like they were lying. The feeling was really cool. No drama. Just a room filled with people who were sad because they were going to miss their loved one. A life worth living.

What I learned………..Death is final! It all comes down to that group of people standing around feeling sad (or not) but really wanting to get out of those clothes and get something to eat. Your whole life. If you didn’t accomplish anything worldly then the world will not care that you are gone. If you didn’t accomplish anything nationally then your country won’t care that you are gone. If you didn’t accomplish anything locally nobody in your community will care that you are gone. If you don’t have a good relationship with family, who is going to tell stories of your upbringing? If you don’t have good friends then who will be your pall bearers or flower bearers? I don’t know what happens next but I like the idea of people standing around laughing and telling positive(mostly) stories about my life.

Your funeral speaks to the type of life that you have lived. If you have had drama in your life there is a pretty good chance that there will be some kind of drama surrounding your death. If there is a lot of confusion and anger in carrying out your last will and testament then that is what your life has come to. That is a house that you built. If there were a lot of things left unsaid then it is because you didn’t say them. If your Celebration of Life is all sad and no glad then you did something wrong. I think I saw the deceased giggle a couple of times during the service that I went to.

Funerals by definition are sad events because you are saying goodbye to someone who has been a part of your life. There are regrets. There is anger. There are missed moments. But the big one is that you are just going to miss them and that can’t be fixed. So, why not spend this moment of reflection taking note of what things in this persons life didn’t work out too well. If something is really sad then think about how you can get around that moment when your time comes. Learn from the bad. And respect the love and admiration of a life well lived. To feel the culmination of everything that a person has stood for come together in people saying “I’m going to miss them.” That is the best thing that can be said when this life is over. “Somebody will miss me!”

#dailyword #meditation #innerpeace #geminimusing