Lately I'm reminded of the saying, "Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to take the necessary step to get there."
I've seen a fair amount of death and dying up close and personal. My mother died when I was 17. My father died a few months before I turned 40. Neither was easy for me. I suspect it isn't easy for any of you when it happens to someone you know.
You can only game the odds so far. I don't care how many vitamins you take or how much yogurt you consume--we are all mortal, and this is one common experience we will all have. I happen to believe we are all spirits in bodies, make of that what you will. Some believe we go to a particular place when we die. John Lennon thought that we all shine on. Science teaches us that energy cannot be destroyed; it simply changes form. I find that even in my belief I have more questions than answers. I have a 97-year-old step-mom who still feels she hasn't lived long enough; I tell you the truth, I cannon really imagine it. I've known people my age to die from heart attacks and stroke. Last year a 24-year-old guy that worked where I work dropped dead at a Memorial Day barbecue from a brain embolism. He had a wife and a month-old baby
We try so hard to lay a hand of ration and reason on this matter of death--and for all that it is still a Great Mystery to so many of us. I am no different--and I am really no closer to having any hard-core answers now than I was when my mother died. Yesterday we celebrated the triumph of life over death--and whether you believe in Jesus the Christ or in bunnies and eggs and trees coming back to life, that's what Easter is all about. So. I take heart. Just because I don't always go on in this particular form does not mean that I don't go on. And it's that way for you, too.