-Jon
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I think it's easy to forget, most days as we go through the everyday struggles and monotony of life that there's something greater at work.
A friend of mine lost her mother today... and to her and to others who have lost someone so close, I'll never have the right words to cure or make right the feeling of loss or longing that rushes ceaselessly into the void. But I do have some beliefs and feelings that have helped me in coping with the loss of loved ones in my circles.
This is a take it or leave it note, but I wanted to get it out there just in-case.
I believe we all come from one and that all things are a part of the one. In all our differences in all our varied manifestations, living, conscious, animate, inanimate - we all share the same source. I believe that this existence - self aware human life, is confounding(!) and that for the vast majority (myself included) our purpose, our origin, our sense of connection to the one - eludes us. We spend all of our resources struggling to understand this great mystery. For all of our great collective achievements, and catastrophic colossal failures, struggles, challenges, and successes - we're still lost.
Three events happen in everyone's life that give us our strongest clues to the answers we seek, in each one pulls back the veil just a little to a world of an unbelievably overwhelming state of being - so overwhelming that at these times we can't even comprehend what we're experiencing. The three major events are - Birth, Love & Death.
I can only speak from what I know, from my own experiences (part of my human limitation/advantage/disadvantage).
At birth, you're (ideally) brought into a place of pure love, a place where your very life depends on utter selflessness and unwavering attention to your very state of helplessness. This is no accident, this is by by design. As the parent of a newborn child, we're all challenged to demonstrate a higher purpose of being than our own needs, wants and desires. To put them aside, and hold up a greater purpose to love something and someone so much more than ourselves. I've been at both ends of this now in my life and I believe this is truly a gateway to an intangible indescribable state of being the more closely connects us to our higher purpose and to the origin of our truth.
In love, (in all forms) - this veil is lifted once again. While significantly different than parenting a newborn, a familiar state of being begins to surface in ways we can't fully describe. It drives us to do things that might be considered wonderful or even crazy at times - depending on the circumstances. The feeling can so overwhelmingly take over and give you the initiative to do somethings your would probably not otherwise do. What is this? It's the same longing, desire to connect and, to the extent possible, be united (be one) - or at a minimum, be understood which is just another shade of then same thing. When you love someone - you are actually recognizing that deepest part of you in someone else - and it begins that you care for them in ways you care for yourself, what they think and how they feel, etc. This is again a gateway to our higher purpose.
In death, a deep sorrow engulfs us. We fight for answers to questions, "Why now?, What could I have done, What did they do to deserve to go now?" - In all of the "What if's", both sad and angry - this mental dance of beating against a brick wall finds no way through. It's a distraction. The truth is in the feeling, not how the mind rationalizes those feelings. The feeling is the only truth, but it's so intense, it's so overwhelming and so unbearably complex that it can feel terrible. This veil, the same veil is pulled back again, and for some, doesn't close. And you've seen the same truth at this point from all sides. The feeling is loss... the feeling is longing, a void so vast and endless so deep. While standing at the precipice of a void so vast can be like orbiting a black hole, sucking the life from you, there's a hidden truth - and a hole has been punched through the veil. The longing and loss you feel is the same desire the same higher purpose to be one... to recognize our fleeting place in the spectacle of life.
I believe that we're here to learn something completely intangible - to hold up, higher than our selves, our love for all things that are, to put before ourselves the wants and needs of others to lift up the hearts and minds of those we encounter. We do so many things that echo this challenge, other times we fail miserably this is what it means to be human and the struggle is real... but I believe the truth is always the same.
My heart goes out to my friends and family faced with one of life's most confounding challenge... I'm far from perfect and challenged and flawed as human as can be... but I have this belief that drives my strength to drive forward and I wanted to share it with you.
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