The hidden magic of death & grieving…
In the west it isn’t common to spend much time contemplating death, and therefore the meaning of life.
This topic has fascinated and terrified me daily from about age 7.
I was frequently met with an electric rush of terror considering one day I and those I loved would no longer exist. I’d send myself into panic attacks contemplating the infinite space and our finite experience.
I always found death in the west as scary, bleak, black and somber.
Fast forward about 20 years and I found myself at the edge of the Ganges in Varanasi watching bodies burn one after the other in what is known as the worlds most holy cities.
It was evident that the east had a much different perspective. Celebratory, colourful and boisterous. While confronting, it felt much more sacred and true some how.
This contrast inspired me to explore deeper.
In 2014 I was drawn to the Grandmother plant medicine known as Ayahuasca and experienced death in a way that forever changed my perspective. I experienced the bliss and interconnectedness of the all of everything.
When my grandfather passed away a few years later I was able to sing him through his transition and feel his mother connect with him on the other side.
When Sharon passed I experienced the same kind of magic, and even now I feel her spirit at different times throughout the day fill me with love, peace and gratitude.
Like yesterday when I watched Tim laugh and smile while playing in the waves.
Sharon had lost her mother and daughter and had similar views of death as I. She was not afraid of it and one of her wishes weeks before she left this plane was that when people thought of her they would feel peace and take a soft deep sigh.
We really are dying each moment. After each breathe. We are never truly the same.
This deep truth allows us to fully enter the present and celebrate each moment.
Perspective really is everything.
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