To Death We Toast

I often wonder what it is about death that causes us to linger. Is it because the absence is so overbearing we can't sort through the emotions of missing someone we knew? or is it the fact we're reminded some day, we too will be gone?

To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. J.K. Rowling

I remember at a young age (early twenties) thinking about death and what that meant for me. I have so many questions that will never properly be answered. What does it feel like and will I be trapped in a dark realm of some unexplained in between? Makes sense as to why people hold tightly to what is promised in the bible. And to be honest, my faith is what brings me peace when I think of the fact someday I will be nothing but dust.

How we handle death. Who's it really about?

To me, death is beautiful. Once I got past the fear of the unknown I was able to see the peace in it. Life is hard. We spend our whole lives working, emotional and trying to figure out what our purpose is, only to hope in the end that what we did was enough. I use to fill myself with worry that I was never doing enough and accomplishing enough to leave behind anything to make people remember me. Now, I simply don't care.

It angers me when someone is gone, others steal that opportunity to self indulge in pity. Today we see people grasping a death as an opportunity to make it about them. At least that's how I see it, or maybe I'm just being inconsiderate about their feelings. They steal beautiful memories of others when the death is now their death and not truly the one who has died. Don't do that, okay?

We were put here to experience

1 Thessalonians 4:11 And to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,

No, this does not mean we were meant to live, work and die. I fully believe that we were put here to experience love, anger, hate, lust, happiness, fear, peace, joy, confusion, heart break and etc. Our souls need to experience these emotions so we could remember the beauty of God and his promise for us. Ever been in a low place and that's when you found yourself closest to God and feeling his love and peace? Our souls need that. We are here to love most importantly, but also to remember where we originated from, and that was from the mouth of God.

Accept It

Once I realized I can't control how I will exit this earth, I started searching for ways to actually live. I find the most purpose in life when I am indulging in the excitement of others. When I see someone full of life with a soul on fire, I am living. When I look into the eyes of my children and see their innocence and wonder, I am living. When I experience heart break and fall on the Lord, I am living. And I know all this is building me up for a purpose.

I don't pity the dead. I feel a happiness for them that they are released of all the hardness of this world. And I am not saying I never weep for the dead. I still cry when I think about my friend who was taken so quickly from me (see I made it about me). But, when I cry, it's because I cry for what I no longer get to experience with that person. That is the void. The emptiness we feel. And so to death I raise a toast, and live life until the day I can embrace the ones that went on ahead of me.