Today was a rare and magical day where we had a total eclipse of the sun, converging with a new moon, coinciding with the spring equinox. I knew it was a momentous time, and I felt I was not making the best of it. And then here is the gift that was presented to me on this day to meditate about:
I was listening to two veterinarians talk about the appreciation they often receive for putting down clients’ animals: telephone calls, thank-you notes, cards. They were remarking that this perhaps seemed a bit counter to what one might expect.
Later I mulled and mulled about why their clients would do that, and here’s what I came up with:
Experiencing death gets us in touch with life.
It seemed so simple when I thought about it. Getting in touch with life is something we really notice when we lose a loved one. Here’s what I mean.
Death gets us in touch with life in a way that nothing else can. Whether it be from losing a loved one and experiencing that gaping, aching hole in the heart that is left, or coming close to our own death—perhaps through an uncanny save in a freak accident, or a health diagnosis that spells no good outcome. Our feelings are so incredibly intense that we cannot help but notice how this death (or near death) is influencing our own life at this moment and will in the future.
When we experience death, we are in touch with life in a different and fleeting way. It is an exquisite moment: always painful, but also awesome, because it puts us deeply in touch with the fact that we are still alive, and that we have a choice as to how to go forward.
I’ve been grappling with loss this past week myself, as one of my many animals—a horse who, at this time, is my familiar and my soulmate as no other has been since I was perhaps five years old—has been going through a dire health circumstance. Not so acute or life-threatening on the surface, perhaps, but one of those insidious influences that can undermine health slowly, through pain and stress, to the point of death. So I’ve been keenly in touch with the idea of losing her for the last few days and have been feeling pretty morbid.
But today was a good wake-up call: one of the vets helping me with my horse said, in regard to a mutual friend who has had one of those no-good-outcome prognoses: “I’m never surprised at anything I hear like that anymore. And it always makes me remember that I need to appreciate every single moment I have.”
Gulp. Yes!
THAT is what I’m talking about… THAT is how death gets us in touch with life! Whether impending or actual, death tends to compress our emotions… into what eventual form is highly individual. We can easily become lost in the maelstrom of grief and anger, or we can be reminded to appreciate every single moment we are experiencing right now. Whether we wallow overly long in the darkness and depression that often sweeps us away after experiencing a death, or glory in the moments we are presently experiencing in this life we are living right now, we become intensely in touch with LIFE, our life, and we can’t escape it.
And yes, sometimes life is truly beautiful and glorious, and sometimes it just sucks.
Experiencing death gets us in touch with Life.
And that’s why veterinarians get thank-you cards from clients whose animals they have helped cross over the Rainbow Bridge.
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