Today -- I joined my best friend in bringing her mom to her final resting place. Death seems so final yet our faith teaches otherwise. Death is the doorway towards Eternal Life. Such a hope makes the passing away of a loved one more bearable but it does not erase the pain that comes with the loss. Yet, it is also death which makes every moment special and precious....
I used to dread death for I could not fathom how it would be being six feet under with a load of earth on top of you. It must be claustrophobic! What will I see, hear, feel when I am dead. Will I even be able to do all these then? Such thoughts I could not bear for long. I would shudder and breathe a prayer that such a reality be not mine for a long time yet. Growing older, I am slowly making my peace with it. I have not yet come to the point of welcoming it with open arms but at least I do not break out into panic attacks at the thought. What brought about the change? Loss. The experience of personal loss in my life and with the promise of a reunion on the other side makes death a necessary "evil". Only when I pass through death would I be able to join my loved ones who have gone ahead. Only through death would I be able to experience a life without pain, sorrow and mourning, for faith tells me that all that troubled my life would be no more living Life in God's presence .
The pain of parting is still remembered. Yet this same pain is what helps remind me that I can not allow a moment to pass without it being noted, experienced - lived. Life indeed is precious, all because it has an end. At the end of the funeral, on the way home I found myself looking at my own mother, who chose to attend the wake to pay her own respects to the mother of my best friend, and thanking God I still have her with me. Death today taught me again to not take things for granted....
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