Question #11: How do you view mortality?

Clearing the Way

Death.  How do you feel when you read that word?  What emotions surface?  Our relationship with letting go is often cloaked with layers of avoidance, fear, fascination, grief, or relief.  What is it that keeps us from looking forward to the necessary clearings of life? 

Artwork by Liz Birdsong
Midnight Soul Tarot Cards

The natural turn of earth encourages us to drop trepidation through its own daily examples of transition. 

It seems we cling to an unbending version of life in efforts to shield ourselves from change; but it's an exercise in futility.  

Death of any kind is change, opening the way for the new.  And with all certainty, that's exactly what it does. 

A door has been closed, denying access to what used to be.  And with that, mourning merges with The Mystery.  The inhale and exhale of life. 

Looking in the mirror, I see what is, and traces of what was.  I can imagine that which might be, and I can hold the bittersweet emotions that occupy the same space within me.  And as I review my experiences with death, I find I still cling to desires of what was, and wish for it to be in my now.  I feel the places inside of me that feel empty because that door closed, and I still cry.  There are days I don't look forward, I look back and I revisit and remember; and I am kind to myself because I have moved past regrets that may have smeared the memory.   And then I breathe. 

The emotions of grief and joy rise and fall with my perception of death, and mortality, and I play with the balance.  The clearing makes way for my own evolution, and I whisper a blessing for it all.

How do you view mortality?

Join the conversation...add your comments below.

Let's skip a few rocks, and create some ripples...

~Asia