Keep Going
Spring is making itself known here in the Midwest – a harbinger of hope and new life welcome after a long and tumultuous winter.
This last week I was blessed to see migrating tundra swans (they head to the arctic to mate) and nine deer in the park by house. My husband, who is currently in Montana, has been watching the elk on the ridge above his childhood home.
It doesn’t matter what is going on in the world, personally or politically. Seasons change. Life goes on.
It’s almost as if Mother Nature is pushing us along at these times.
When a major life change or trauma causes internal shock, there is not always external validation. It’s weird to look around and see Life... or business as usual when the ground beneath has been so thoroughly shaken.
One of the books I picked up recently, that wasn’t what I was expecting, is Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion, by Joan Halifax. I misread the title as “Being with THE Dying” ... I thought it would be helpful with my hospice work. What I discovered inside were Buddhist principles to help everyone understand and embrace their own mortality, as no one gets out of this world alive, and usually, not in the manner they hope or expect.
I have plans to die like my Grandma Dollie who went to the DMV ten days after her 92nd birthday. After they told her she would need to come back and take a written and driving test to renew her license, she sat down on a bench outside while my aunt got the car and breathed her last.
Chances are, for me, that Alzheimer’s or cancer are more likely. And for all I know – I could choke on my dinner tonight… or an asteroid could hit?
The point is to focus on this moment now. Am I making a difference? Am I doing what I came here to do? The swans, the deer, and the elk are all doing what they came here to do. Am I?
When I breathe my last breath, will I have changed life on this earth for the better?
It doesn’t have to be extravagant.
I think about those whom I loved who have transitioned from this earth. None of them were famous by any means. None of them were financially rich. Every single one of them brightened my life with a smile, with a conversation, with a joke or twinkle in their eyes. They lived and shared love and their own inner light!
The angel message is: keep going.
Follow the lead of nature and trust your instincts for the next step!
Bless you!
