Are You Ever Ready?

Dancing in the Stars

It seems apropos that I read an article by Sasha Sagan on her father, Carl Sagan, the day before learning of the death of someone close to me and my boyfriend. I think, in part, we knew that her time was coming to an end. We both know time is not a fixed object, aging and death is part of a mysterious cycle that we’ve yet to explore. Is there an after-life? Is there reincarnation? Or do we disappear into energy, scattered back into the universe? With all the various ways we try to comfort ourselves by the passing of our loved ones, are we ever ready when the time comes? The real question is, must we be ready or do we play on with the age old rituals of births and deaths with tears, doubt, disbelief, laughter, and acceptance?
Continue reading “Are You Ever Ready?”

Death and carrying on

Barbados
Birth and death is the natural course of a human life yet while the West rejoice in birth and mourn death, the few funerals I attended as naive child felt more like a celebration. I was shielded by my parents from death as they’ve encountered too closely the meaning of death. It wasn’t until a year and a half ago that I had come face-to-face with it. I always thought it would be like it has been where an elderly parent would pass away and a child would pay respect by becoming a monk or nun for a time being. Instead, you begin to understand mortality and the mean of “end” when a close friend the same age as you pass away.
Continue reading “Death and carrying on”