are you prepared for what will be later?

 

 “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” —Revelation 7:17

I have been living with a man who has been trying to deal with the loss of  a beloved uncle and it has not been easy on him or I. I am strong enough...or so I think, yet to watch someone dealing with the loss of a family member is so very hard. I have witnessed the passing of my sister (unexpectedly) as well as my mom and dad. I have seen how death comes in and claims a life. I came to the realization that death is not the end of life, but rather, the beginning of a new life. Much as a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, so does dying bring a person to the next stage of existence. Based on this revelation, I no longer fear death, I embrace it. What we tend to fear is the loss of our friends, or of how our friends and loved ones will deal with our passing. And pain? There is pain when we were born, was there not? Physical pain of both mother and child as each struggled to come into this world. Yet studies have shown that it is when the mother works with her body, breathing through contractions and bearing down that produces the best results with minimal resistance.

I saw this posted today and thought it was relevant to what I have experienced. Maybe after reading it, you may agree with me, that just as one stage of life ends, in this case, life in the womb, another begins, life here and now. Another cycle comes...we die to this life on earth and are born into yet another life. All of life follows this path: trees, flowers, animals, even night becoming day and then another night takes over. Life is a period of rest and awakening, then more rest followed by yet another reawakening.


 In a mother's womb were two babies. One asked the other: "Do you believe in life after delivery?" The other replies, "why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later....

"Nonsense," says the other. "There is no life after delivery. What would that life be?"

"I don't know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths."

The other says "This is absurd! Walking is impossible. And eat with our mouths? Ridiculous. The umbilical cord supplies nutrition. Life after delivery is to be excluded. The umbilical cord is too short."

"I think there is something and maybe it's different than it is here." the other replies, "No one has ever come back from there.

Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery it is nothing but darkness and anxiety and it takes us nowhere."

"Well, I don't know," says the other, "but certainly we will see mother and she will take care of us."

"Mother??" You believe in mother? Where is she now?

"She is all around us. It is in her that we live. Without her there would not be this world."

"I don't see her, so it's only logical that she doesn't exist."

To which the other replied, "sometimes when you're in silence you can hear her, you can perceive her. I believe there is a reality after delivery and we are here to prepare ourselves for that reality...."